Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter
by Inu-Angel Z
Summary: [Au Wave][OC][Discontinued] A girl from a foreign land, sent to help Naruto mature into what he should become: Kitsubi sama, Hero of Time. With the help of a revived Haku, will she be able to complete the mission assigned to her?
1. Prologue: Bright Day, Blue Sky

Tittle: Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter  
Author: Inu-Angel Z, Rosethorn Li  
Anime: Naruto  
Couples: undesided at the moment  
Warnings: shojo-ai / maybe shounen ai (depends); OC (but not a Mary-Sue)  
Ratings: PG-13 / maybe some R (will be warning before chapter)  
Genres: Humor / Action / Adventure / Romance(?)

Summary: '_She wasn't trained as a ninja; she wasn't even supposed to _be here_! So how in the Seven Hells did she get roped into this?_' Lopeona Talance is sent from the mystic Flordina Plains (across the ocean from the Forbidden Lands of Elements) to a familiar, misty bridge... And why does she keep mumbling about a Hero of Time named Kitsubi?

A/N: This information will only be in the Prologue so it doesn't take up too much space. ' Man! It's been so long since I wrote a fanfiction...

**(1)** means to see the ending notes or glossary

"_Foreign language._"

**Spirits and Gods**

_Flashback is like this._

--_mind speach_--

* * *

**__**

Prologue: Bright Day, Blue Sky

* * *

On the bright day of midsummer's newbirth, the sun shone especially bright in it's cloudless sky as birds sang happily in celebration. Everything was still -peaceful even; a perfect day for a family outing. Anyone would have thought, that a perfect day like this would be...well...perfect. All except-

"Lopeona-girl! Get your half assed lazy self down here!"

The cry went unheeded as said girl, now climbing a tall beech tree, laughed mockingly. She'd been chided -struck repeatedly- enough times to know what her Grandmother hated and disapproved of her doing. She only (purposefully) did such things that made the older woman angry when she was around, just to sadistically piss her off. It was fun (to herself and a few others) seeing the normally calm woman turn many shades of purple before calling for assistance.

A lithe figure ran up to the enraged woman as her granddaughter watched from the highest branch that would hold her, curious -but not for long.

Red hair -uncommon enough in this part of the Flordina Plains()- flew back as it's owner turned her bronze features to face the sitting girl. Clad in the classic navy blue (button down) T-shirt and loose canvas pants (for protection at work, the watcher remembered) of the Main House servants, the slight firgure began to climb the easily-scaleable tree on her Grandmother's orders. No doubt ordered to _pursuade_ her to come down.

"No way in Hell," the girl answered before the red-head could even speak. "You know what they want me to do today, Soran?" she asked her servant friend.

Soranya Solance, Main House odd-job maid and only friend of Lopeona (she winced every time someone called her name) 'Auron' Talance (5th heir to the Main House Branch as well), shook her head 'no'.

"They want me to supervise the servants!" the chestnut haired girl exclaimed, almost falling from the tree as she raised her arms to dramatize the rant. Her friend, however, saved her by wrapping long arms around her waist to keep her from plunging into the ground. Not that anything much would have happened, since the spells cast on the pale girl every morning prevented any harm from befalling her at any given time. (She couldn't get sick, either.)

"Soran, girl! Bring her down this instant!"

Mistress Savannah Howaks was enraged yet again at her troublesome granddaughter.

Sighing to herself with a muttered "_bothersome_", Auron jumped from her branch to a lower one, startling her Grandmother another shade of purple (closer to red this time). Grinning mischieviously to herself, the 5th Heir of Main House Branch jumped into a deep swan pond below the tree, causing it's residents much confusion and panic.

Upon resurfacing, the now-wet girl was scolded -smacked a few as well- perfusely by Mistress Savannah and send off to her '_desolate wing_', a giggling maid just behind.

* * *

Auron sighed as she bonelessly fell onto the cloud-like substance covered in cloth (her bed, mad with high-level magic) used for sleeping and relaxing purposes. (Atleast, that's what the mage-merchant had explained to her it was, but he could have been wrong.) Sighing to herself, the girl lay a pale arm over tired eyes. 

Soranya stared at her charge, used to the girl's laziness. The only thing that seemed to motivate her as of late was annoying her Grandmother, the Researcher of Wing House Branch, and studying the tomes in that vast library the woman was in charge of. Years ago, when her friend was younger and easier to please, she'd sit through her wife-lessons patiently just for the chance to visit the older woman she now annoyed to no end. Soran wondered what had happened to that obedient girl.

The brown haired girl sighed again, her pale blue -sometimes almost white- eyes closed as she leaned forward and onto her sitting companion, head nested in the crook of her neck. The red-head's eyes widened for a moment before patting the back of her young Mistress's head, not sure what had come over her friend who usually avoided as much physical contact as possible.

Warm breath tickled her neck as the Mistress drifted off to sleep in the arms of her loyal servant, feeling more secure than she had in a long while. Rest was a luxury she usually couldn't afford to have, seeing as a court mage at any moment could come and cast a _Spell of Obedience_ on the delinquent girl, even if it was illegal and punishable by torchured death. (Some people never seemed to learn.)

Laying Auron across the now-heated bed (it was midautumn, after all, and even with all the spells, no one wanted an Heiress to catch a cold), Soranya studied the usually troublesome girl. Servant as she was, being the 5th heir's maid and almost constant companion was a tough job. The girl, now close to marriagable age (60 seasons () as she was), caused much trouble between pranks (though seldem nowadays), breaking honorary rules, and ditching important lessons.

It was Soran's turn to sigh, but she quickly smiled at the figure muttering in her sleep, shifting slightly in a seemingly pleasant dream. You just couldn't stay irritated at a usually tense girl finally relaxed after many a stressful month.

Now she just had to figure out a subtle way to tell Auron about the arranged marriage with the 3rd heir... But knowing the girl sleeping before her, Auron would already know. And she had been more tense and snappy these past few days...

Mumbling something Soranya couldn't make out, the light-clad figure rolled over in her sleep, toward the Main Branch servant. A pale hand, now closer to the musing girl since her body's shift, grabbed hold of the closest fabric, which happened to be dark, navy and canvas-hard material.

"Yuki...eh...natsu..."

The serving one heard that mumble and outwardly winced, inwardly filled with so much concern and worry, if she'd thought about, it would shock even herself. After that incident...Auron hadn't talked for twenty seasons, even to her close friend Rhanji Talance, the one she was now engaged to.

Shaking her head to rid herself of past thoughts, the now-blushing girl tried to pry the delicate but firm fingers but to no avail. Auron was infamous for her near-indestructable grip -once she got hold of something she wanted, there was no releasing until either punishment or she grew bored (which was usually the case).

Tugging and prying didn't do any good, so maybe...

Whispering something in her Mistress's ear, face still bright red, the girl gently released her captive and grabbed onto the soft down blanket usually covering her tense, half-asleep form.

Chuckling softly to herself, the deep red of blood-touched cheeks dying down, Soranya watched her Mistress for a moment longer. Turning the warded curtains in exit, the bronze woman allowed herself a small smile of contentment as she disappeared around a bend and into her own chambers.

She felt like thanking Inari-sama(), her patron god, for the plan that had just come to mind.

* * *

'_stupid stupid stupID STUPID! Bakabakabaka teme Soran!_'

Auron cursed over and over in her mind, storming down the aisles of priceless, fireproof scrolls that usually calmed her upon sight, but this time did nothing to quell her anger at a certain red-haired maiden. That-that baka had just told the now-enraged girl of her engagement, the wedding to take place in 5 seasons, when she awoke from the first good rest in ages. What's more, the servant even had the nerve to congratulate her!

The woman knew her too well, had been with her too long, and the sadistic side of herself must have been rubbing off on that damn servant. If she was half-asleep, drugged (which only happened once) or extremely tired, another part of herself would take over so the conscious mind could rest. This side (called Sukien by most_3_) had two parts: the nice, calm, smiling one who avoided some questions and acted perfect; and the other, nasty one that only came out if something angered the nice one, which was hard to do.

'_My split personality has a split personality,_' as she'd once phrased it and laughed.

And as she had been the nice one when Soranya's told her, instead of being angry as the conscious mind would have and lashed out, Sukien had actually been _excited_! Even told the woman so, then went on to list possible wedding presents she would like.

'_Stupid teme Sukien! Baka Soran!_'

She felt like crying. That or tearing someone limb from limb -she never could tell which. And Savannah-baka had said the homocidal-when-angry urges would go away as she grew older...

Sighing to herself, Auron realized her anger, rage and hurt would be wasted on the red-head, and on the subject in general. She hadn't read the recent, as well as long-past, theories on psychology for nothing.

There was one good thing about another persona actually having two: you could give the emotions you didn't want to either one. She could, at least. And when she had ever been in trouble, supposedly knocked out (before the precautious spells), Sukien would take control. It was new to the Flordina Plain's Ruling Houses as well as servants; it must have been her father's blood.

'_Don't think about it...Just ask Obaba-sama for advice like you normally do_.'

Her Obaba-sama was Kandai Arishi's, her foreign father, eccentric mother who took a job in the stock of Wing House's expansive library, helping Savannah-baka with just about anything. The ironic thing was, both old women hated each other with a vengeance. The Howak's reason was simple: she thought the House's blood would be tainted by foreign, unbreed blood. Obaba-sama just didn't agree with the way everyone else was raising her only grandaughter, and welcomed every chance she had to put _ideas_ in the young girl's head and spoil her with knowledge of the outside world.

'_The Forbidden Lands of the Elements_,' the ice eyed girl reflected. That's what everyone called the land-across-sea, her father's family's home. She didn't know (nor did she want to, really; Obaba-sama would have told her if she'd asked) _why_ the man that came from such an interesting place chose to stay in this peaceful Plain full of too many restrictions for House families and workers alike.

'_-sigh- Such a waste. But if he hadn't come, I wouldn't have Obaba-sama, eh?_' Even if Lalon Talance (her mother, always busy) hadn't married Kandai Arishi, Auron would still be the same as she was; maybe not as light haired and eyed, but still the same internally. The father or mother didn't really matter to a person's birth, here. They only made a child when an Elder had died, and the soul needed a new body. ()

Two more turns around packed wooden shelves and Auron came face-to-face with the silverish oak door (fireproof like everything else) leading to orderly office the old woman occupied. Smiling gently to herself, the 5th Heir pushed the heavy door open with little trouble.

"Obaba-sama! I came to see you!" the girl called into the huge, dark room.

Like all the other offices for high librarian officals, the room was two stories, connected by three stairwells and separated by light illusions and sturdy wooden fences, usually from the same tree the door had been cut from. The upper levels were used for storage of things being researched and filed, then placed in the public or personal library when complete. The first floor varied with the kind of work the librarian did: desks layered with half-bound books still being copied for different House families or schools were called Conner clerks; and dusty records of past finds being researched by a seemingly unfortunate woman (most librarians were female, for some reason) were known as Sergect searchers.

As things regarding her father's mother were, the lady was eccentric to the core and did nothing the Hawoks way. She did both the Conner clerks and Sergect searcher's jobs, the things no one else would usually bother to do. Proving people wrong (the Wing prophets, in this case) with blind determination, and if possible, annoying them to no end in the prossess was something Auron and her Obaba-sama had in common.

Shadowed dark recesses, as most of this Wing compound amounted to, greeted her daylight eyes. For some reason, the older female preferred to work in dimly-lit areas, claiming sunlight and any other brightness besides what an oil lantern provided hurt her aged eyes, even if it was not so. Personally, Auron felt quite at home in the darkness, liking the way firelight reflected off hidden-by-shadow objects and making everything so...mysterious.

"Bout time, youngone! Come, what look what I just found!" As usual, the woman's youthful enthusiasms made the chestnut haired girl smile. Somethings never changed.

"What is it, Obaba-sama?" the Talance Heir asked, curious.

She stalked forward, toward the place the librarian's voice had come from, greatly wishing for a lantern.

"An old scroll! Reminds me of home..." The last was whispered, but Auron hadn't trained in prankster's steath for nothing; she had know when someone was coming, after all.

"You really miss them, don't you?" Quiet as it was, the foreign woman heard.

Lopeona Talance saw her shadowed Obaba-sama's back slouch over a back table, crystal windows around her painted black, pretending to concentrate solely on her work. But Auron knew the woman's mind was in turmoil, too many thoughts and feelings only resulting in confusion. Auron was by no means selfish -far from it, in fact- but the ice eyed girl wanted her other, nicer grandmother to stay, even if the aged woman had found a way to go back to her original home. She was the only bright spot in a boring life, so could you really blame the girl?

"Yeah," a breathed whisper.

Auron sighed and nodded, drawing closer to the crouching woman, smiling ever so slightly.

Putting her current train of thought to the darkest recesses of Sukien's mind (the angry one, who would rant about it later), the 3 House hybrid () drew closer to see just what fascinated the woman so.

Slight of figure but well-muscled for a woman of her age, Obaba-sama turned to her only grandchild, dusty skirt swishing the floor. The oil lamp reflected a grandmother's smile and the directed-at's returned one, flickering at it's perch over the female couple. Hugging the aged woman tightly, the younger glanced over the librarian's thinning shoulders.

Laying on the desk innocently was a Forbidden Scroll (meaning it came from the Element Lands), familiar scrawl to Auron. She'd read other tomes as such, having learned the language at an early age when in Obaba-sama's care, decribing something called ninjutsu and genjutsu performed by hand seals (which she didn't know). What had a horse and rabbit to do with creating replicas of the user with water? The mages could just create for her a charm to do as such.

This scroll, though written in the same hand as the others, was inked in red and described-

Auron blinked. She didn't recognize that character. And those seils; to hold something in?

Lopeona released her grandmother, confusion plain as day even in the flickering light. The older woman just smiled with a slightly sad tint, leading the girl closer to the table.

"This scroll is original," the librarian explain, "and was thought to be lost long ago." A pause. "Do you trust me?"

The still-confused girl nodded. Why would her only interesting relative question something as such?

"The do as I say and forgive me latter on." The aged woman's lined face held much remorse, eyes a not-so-hidden sorrow.

Realization hit home. Maybe it was growing up around to cultures, one in stories she knew were true and the other a not-so-ordinary life, or the books she so favored (gifts from her God-friends from other worlds, or so they said) made Auron's imagination run wild, but she suddenly knew what was coming.

Sighing, relaxing a body she hadn't known had tensed, Auron eyed the scroll she now saw was written in blood warily. "What am I to do?"

Obaba-sama blinked, surprised by the girl's solemn formality. Her eyes softened at Auron's set jaw and determined eyes, impressed with her granddaughter's maturity. She hadn't realized just how much she'd had grown up, and was still growing.

"Will the spells allow you to knick your finger?" inquired a suddenly hyper grandmother.

Auron pulled her switch knife out, the folded sheath made of uncommon steel and decorated by a jeweled white tiger (her father's signature animal, here) and various floral scenes, and pulled the near-unbreakable blade from its ornamented holder. Trying to slice the skin of her left index finger didn't work either; her skin just hardened to diamond-tough rock and dented the silver blade slightly. She'd have to remember to get that fixed, later...

Obaba-sama stared at the transparent (to normal eyes, but a cloudy-orange swirl to those who saw magic) second-skin barrier, then turned away, deep in thought. The woman started to pace the enclosed-by-desks space, too familiar with the room to bump into anything.

A thought popped into the waiting girl's head, a candle (they didn't have light bulbs, they used magic or natural fixtures) appearing above her chestnut hair. Wax dripped as she mentally bumped it, burning the poor thing, and she mentally winced as well.

'_The Spells prevent self-harm by outside objects, such as blades and power illusions, but maybe not my own natural weapons..._'

She tried to bite her index finger, she couldn't get a good grip on the skin. Her thumb would have to do, then.

Nipping down with her sharper-than-standard canines, Auron sucessfully broke the skin of her left hand's thumb. It began to bleed as she looked at the still pacing woman expectantly.

And waited a few moments more.

Obaba-sama still seemed to be thinking, the worried scowl telling her granddaughter that. The only way to stop her:

"NEXT!"

The shout echoed slightly, but it succeeded in its purpose.

"Eh?" Comic relief, it seemed.

"What next, Obaba-sama?"

"Oh. Yes...yes..." Scratching behind her ear as the woman always did when nervous, Auron sighed internally. Sometimes the old lady just acted like a forgetful kid.

The elderly female leaned over the scroll, grabbing Auron's wrist as she did so. Glancing her way, Obaba-sama instructed, "Trace the characters for Spirit and Travel with your blood, then repeat after me." The woman continued with a complex sequence of Eternal-words that she knew the other female would remember, as she did everything else.

Auron blinked in confusion as she began to trace the symbols. "Wait. Divna is mist...I thought you were from Risan?" The spell was activated before the elder woman could do a thing, and her only grandchild was sucked from floor to scroll in a flurry of raining sparks.

"No!" Auron heard before blacking out.

Had she done something wrong?

* * *

"Ughn..." 

The pain in her head was immence -the pounding as though a thousand bells rang in her sensitive ears. Eyes unfocused, she took in her surroundings as best she could:

concrete blocks  
wooden and metal ladders  
hammers, saws and electric drills  
various other tools

Alright, she was on her side, laying in the middle of a construction sight. And by the puddles of water around her, likely by a huge lake or the sea. But exacly where was she, how's she get there? And most important of all, why the Hell was it so damn foggy!

****

Owari Prologue

* * *

E/N: Hope you enjoyed the first installment. Chapter One should be coming within the week or the next (soon, and not a month).

* * *

1-...Flordinese Appearence...

In the Flordina Plains, there are three common types of appearence (excluding build): black or dark brown hair, choclate eyes and pale or tannish skin; blonde (white or yellowish) hair, deep blue eyes (like the sea or flowers) and tanned skin; brown hair (with highlights) and green-blue eyes. Red hair is fairly uncommon (1/100) and so is bronze skin (1/1000). There is only one place to find either: Dorchester District.

There are also people with odd color hair, eyes and skin, but most are mages or have demon blood. (The Flordinese people discriminate against no more, including people called 'freaks'.)

2-...Seasons and Age...

Two Seasons 1 year. So if Auron's 60 Season's, she's really 30 years old. But since Flordinese bodies are more durable and have longer life times, she appears around 15 or so. (explained in greater detail in the Glossary.)

Later,  
_Li_


	2. Chapter One: Misty Legend

_**Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter**_

_**By: Li

* * *

**_

Summary: '_She wasn't trained as a shinobi, wasn't even supposed to be here. So why was she?_' Lopeonia Talance is sent from her mystic home by a spell gone awry, only to wake up in a misty construction site, odd noises around her, and a splitting headache. What happened? Where was she? And how the Hell was she supposed to get an aspirin out in the middle of nowhere!

A/N: Chapter One, yay yay! Hope you enjoy, I really do! Finally up!

**(1)** means to see the ending notes or glossary

"_Foreign language._"

**Spirits and Gods**

_Flashback is like this._

--_mind speach_--

* * *

_**Chapter One: Misty Legend (of a young hero)

* * *

**_

Crates of building materials blocked the laying girl from view, but not the sounds from around her. The growling, shouting and occasional crashing of some sort didn't really bother her until she realized the cause of it all.

Fighting. The forbidden Art.

In contrast to the stories Obaba-sama had told her, all Auron's history lessons (taught by the Soonaru scholar unfortunate enough to get the tallest straw) were of peaceful times and the greatest feats her ancestors had accomplished. Such as a stupid horse racing record or how long a male elder's beard had gotten before passing away (100 km, without cutting from the time he was 40 Seasons (when it had just begun to grow)).

Life as an Heiress to the three Houses (even down the list of one) had been a hard (emotionally) life. Boring yes, but still taxing mentally. At least she's had Obaba-sama as a variety factor.

And now her only interesting relative was across an ocean, her only granddaughter in a foreign place (though the girl had a suspicion where she was) with a forbidden..._sport_ -fighting and killing, as it was (no one in Flordina died of anything but old age)- going on around her.

How was Auron supposed to protect herself if someone attacked her, thinking the crouching figure was a hiding, cowardly enemy? More importantly, was there a way to reverse the transportation spell to send the 5th heir back the way she'd come?

Yes, Lopeona (wince at the name) had longed for something more amusing than turning Savannah-baka different shades of purple. (-mental sigh- It was getting old and boring after the last 5 Seasons of no new colors. The woman had already turned every shade of red and purple humanly possible twice over.)

A louder bang, growling and cracking sound alerted the hiding girl to the battle's closer approach. Leaning over the crates despite her dizziness and pounding headache, Auron realized something: the mist was just too thick! Not to mention it was filled with an electric type of magic, making it hard to tell what's what. She couldn't see an inch in front of her nose!

With her current eyes, that is.

Remembering the incantation for better eyesight provided to her by the Horn House tutor called Doctor (not the unfortunate one teaching her History; his brother), Auron concentrated. It wasn't really for people who could already see; after the incident that awakened Sukien's sides in her, the poor thing hadn't been about to see a thing for many a moon. The chant she now wittled down to it's bare bones and root words in her still aching head was for the blind to see for a short period of time, which also consumed a lot of magic power. Hopefully her revised version would work, though.

Sighing to herself at the unpleasant memories, Auron completed the mantra 5 times before it took full effect. She could now see almost clearly within a 10 kilometer radius, the rest blocked out as if the fog was a shield, hiding the fighters from herself and each other.

Sniffing warningly, about to sneeze, the brown haired girl stopped herself just in time. She may not have been trained in fighting and what not, but many Seasons of sneeking around usually observant mage guards had sharpened Auron's senses and taught her a thing or two about stealth. Her reflexes were above average, and the girl knew never to cause unwanted noise lest give away her location.

Listening intently, eyes beginning to focus and hangover to fade, Auron heard an infernal racket meters away from her radius vision. Dogs barking, sniffing and sneezing, trying to find something in this never-ending fog. Her headache came back full throttle and she whimpered, clutching the offending body part tightly. She willed the pain away, wishing all the while she'd listened more intently to Obaba-sama's self-help pressure point remedies.

Too late now, though...

Risking one eye open despite the pain, the brown haired girl saw movement on the far side of her visional area: two figures, the smaller kneeling by a foreign object, the other larger and bigger built standing idly, shifting uneasily. Did she hear sounds of..._sobbing_?

Knowing it was none of her concern and she would most likely end up a target of battle if the girl even moved, Auron nonetheless was curious. Jahar-baka () must be rubbing off on her personality; the ice eyed figure never would have even considered going out in the open before she started seeing the God (and helping him occasionally) more often.

Battling within herself, curiosity won out. And if the girl was crying, maybe she _could_ help in some way.

As she crept closer, feeling vulnerable all the while, Auron saw the girl (kneeling figure, slight and wearing odd looking clothes) visibly tense and the man behind her glance around, not sensing or seeing -obviously- a thing. In a flash, pink hair (Odd. Was she an apprentice mage?) flying, the kneeling figure had thrown a sharp blade in the direction she felt an unfamiliar presence.

Auron, crouching a few feet away and wary, jumped to avoid it as best she could, but it seemed some sort of wordless spell had been cast on the blade. An explosion rivaling that of a small bomb erupted from the hastily thrown object, knocking the hidden figure on her back. Protection spells immediately took effect, a barrier forming hard as diamond against Auron's skin. It was weightless armor, literally a second skin, and virtually impenetrable. But oh, no matter how many times the mages tried to improve the spells, it itched!

On her back, the newly transported girl mentally cursed the thrice blessed thing, sighing as her white robe-like clothes were burned to tatters. The outer layer, at least. The inner, something her Obaba-sama had ordered through many mage shops, stayed intact.

The silkily woven garments, white like all her clothes were (the traditional Heir color no one else would wear) the same as her stupid precautions father's antiharm spells: couldn't be broken through if run over by an eight-wheel truck (As much as the Flordinese relied on magic, they weren't stupid. Though not much advanced in the weapons or electricity department (a few provences had it, but still), they had invented non-pollutionary cars long ago.) and didn't stain easily. The things only covered mid-arm and thigh, though, so she was actually thankful to the spells for keeping high level burns away.

Sighing, her ears ringing yet again, Auron let out a small moan. This definitely wasn't her day.

* * *

Sakura sniffed, rubbing away her tears with one hand, a kunai secure in a defensive position with the other. Who would dare interrupt the time she took for mourning her dear Sasuke-kun (_dead, dead, can't believe it, couldn't help, useless, at least protect his body must protect_), even when ninja weren't allowed to cry? Couldn't the intruder sense complete grief and have the decency to stay away until her tears were dried and she was more collected? 

But if it _was_ another shinobi, their training would instruct them to attack when the enemy was most vulnerable.

What the pink haired female nin saw sitting up and groaning after she'd thrown the kunai with an explosive note attached wasn't an enemy nin or any kind of fighter, but a regular village girl, clothes burned to rags. The girl's long brown hair, seemingly darker from the intense fog's filter, flying loose from a tied ribbon still holding most of the tangled locks in place but burnt beyond it's original color. Her eyes and skin (from what Sakura could see) were grayish through the fog but she seemed otherwise fine, if only in a minimal amount of pain.

Not wanting to leave Sasuke-kun's body (_don't think, don't think, protect_) or the bridge builder unprotected, Sakura decided to waited for the injured girl to draw closer (if she ever did) before apologizing.

And the girl rose from the ground, staggering slightly, and coughed. No blood came up; more like she was clearing her throat. She dusted herself off, neither wincing in pain nor limping as she advanced on the cloudy (to her) figures.

'_Why would a villager be out here?_' the rational part of her mind asked the cherry-blossom. Inner-Sakura was strangely silent, had been ever since she'd seen Naruto's pained face and Sasuke's corpse. (_protect proctect, let no one else touch_)

Turning her attention from advancing girl to the cold limp body of her beloved, Sakura abandoned the nin teachings and began to openly sob again, throwing herself on the deceased's chest. Her charge, startled by the girl's sudden defense then near-hysterical break down, let the laying nin cry for her fallen comrad, not noticing the silent girl a few feet away before it was too late.

"Is she going to be alright?" a calm voice asked, unnerving in the chaotic battlefield.

She'd spoken.

He turned toward the voice, finding himself face to face with a young lady in her late teens, ice eyes gentle even in their startling near-transparent nature and wild brown hair closer to a light reddish chestnut than anything else tied back in a ragged ribbon with several strands escaping. He watched her smile, eyes closing in a happy arch, and nodded in Sakura's direction.

"She seems quite upset." The voice was quiet, just above a whisper, but he heard the underlying concern just fine. This girl must be compassionate, to worry enough about a complete stranger to just come up and ask.

"Anyone would be, if someone close to them died." He didn't want to reveal anything or place his guard in danger, but her question deserved an answer.

Startled, the girl went rigid for a moment, then relaxed, saying something in a languauge he didn't understand. Face turned in the direction of the sobbing shinobi, he could only see a pale neck covered by red-brown hair and ear, unable to see her real reaction.

Sighing, the girl turned to him, a semiserious look on her face. "I understand completely."

Tazuna blinked a couple times in confusion, then nodded. It seemed many kids these days had some experience with loss.

Dropping her serious tone and expression, the girl smiled at him again. "I'll help if I can..." She trailed off as Sakura noticed the foreign chakra signature beside her charge. Taking out a kunai in defense, stance a classic taught at the Academy, the pink haired girl glared at the intruding figure, only relaxing slightly at the '_threat's_' appearance.

The ice eyed girl blinked a few times, cocking her head to the side in a way that screamed 'cute!' to all who observed. "You are in grief," the girl stated, tattered white-bordering-gray robes billowing in the wind that made the sheen of mist dance around all four. "Why?"

Sakura blinked again at the odd question, then narrowed her eyes. She poured the anger of not being able to prevent her beloved's death, coupled with many things that are not for prying eyes (or ears), into her response. "Why? _WHY!_ That teme killed him! Sasuke-kun is dead! DEAD! And I couldn't..couldn't do anything!" Inner-Sakura seemed to have taken over to express her host, even if it was no more than a whisper.

The girl just stared blankly, then smiled, infuriating the pink headed nin all the more. But before the girl could succumb to rage and speak, she was interrupted.

"He is not dead."

"_WHAT!_"

* * *

"_WHAT!_" 

The cry startled Naruto and Haku as they spoke to each other, the latter asking the former to kill him as he'd failed his purpose to live. Both turned to the right (where it had come) in surprise, their senses more alert than before.

"What was that?" Naruto asked himself quietly, confused even if his face didn't show it yet. "It sounded like Sakura-chan..." (Kinda slow, right?)

Haku, on the other hand, took that moment to notice the sounds of battle and sense of dread coming from his most-important-person's fight. '_Something is wrong...Terribly wrong..._'

One figure, taller and hand glowing, was racing at another, the one secured in place by lumpy barricades that prevented movement or escape. '_Master...Master is going to die!_' the pureheart realized.

Turning to Naruto, he smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. I can't die just yet." _I have something left to fulfill_.

With that he raced off, but not before hearing the blonde's protests of "Wait!"

Haku intercepted the Chidori death blow meant for Zabuza the demon, and Auron felt the familiar sense of death with an icy shiver running down her spine, sucking the energy right out of her.

* * *

"Someone has died," came the murmur from the now-blank eyed girl, said orbs turning dull gray-blue. Followed by something in a language not even close to their own (_it was not yet his time to go_) and the girl's keeling-over. 

She lay on her stomach, inches away from Sasuke's neck, the man and young girl crying out in surprise. She could see the points of fake-death the needles punctured through (common in books and real life because of her tutor Doctor's experimenting)(), but he still breathed, at least from what she could see. And his chakra was nowhere near the capacity it reached before death; most killed shinobi with strong wills cursed their murderer with blood-guilt. (The only way to overcome such a curse was through purification, and more oft than not the killer went insane before the ritual even reached it's hilt.)

Sighing quietly, Auron tried to pick herself up into a sitting position, but only managed to roll onto her back. Why did the dying have to take so much of her energy with them!()

The pink haired girl's face swam into view, long locks hanging loose with only a strange headband to keep the unruly mess out of her way. '_How does she fight, with that mop of hair always getting in the way?_' Auron wondered as she began to cough again. She, at least, had the sense to tie it all back with a shortening charm sewn into the ribbon.

"Are you alright?" the girl asked, worried. Compassionate killer, what an odd thing.

"Y-yes," she managed, glancing over at the _'corpse'_ of the girl's special person. "J-just a moment, please."

Green eyes closed as she nodded, turning back to her injured companion. The bulky, beer-bellied man took her place, kneeling somewhat shakily by the fallen stranger. Auron chuckled mentally, not wanting to explain anything if she'd done it out loud.

Preparing herself, the chestnut headed foreigner gathered the remaining energy in her body and spread it through out, pulling elemental power in even as she did so. Sakura glanced at her having felt the surge of foreign energy, not chakra but something similar, but only saw the girl sitting up with some difficulty.

Remembering what the other girl had said, the pink kunoichi asked, "What do you mean, he's not dead?" Her voice held an underlying hope even as she tried to suppress the emotion, not wanting to believe something that could be a lie.

Auron just smiled, eyes closed and breathing heavy. Both pairs of eyes that watched her warily for different reasons reflect each thoughts; Tazuna- '_could she be a spy for Gatou? But why risk a seemingly untrained girl in the middle of a fight?_' and Sakura- '_is she lying? Sasuke-kun can't be alive! He-he's dead! Stop it, stop lying!_' as Inner-Sakura was strangely quiet.

The chestnut headed girl replied cryptically, "Pressure points."

Sakura, confused as her charge was for a moment, understood. "But that means..."

The stranger nodded. "Whoever did this to him didn't want to kill." Leaving the girl to her thoughts for a moment, Auron began to cough, cursing the lung Spells for being faulty.

"I-I'll help," the girl managed through her coughing fit.

"Wha" Sakura glanced up sharply.

"Save your friend." Ice eyes held no emotion but empathy that the girl could see as the other female began to cough again, though raw from the smoke. Here was a civilian stranger she'd thought to be an enemy and thrown an explosive tag, offering to help Sakura remove needles weapons from her seemingly-dead teammate that could kill him instantly if not pulled out correctly.

The pink haired ninja would have protested if the girl hadn't already started.

Fussing over them, Sakura seemed to be in multiple places at once, asking so many questions about 'Sasuke-kun' that the bridge builder couldn't help but laugh despite the situation. The kunoichi only calmed down when the foreign girl told her, "If you don't stop bumping me, I may make a mistake. This is delicate business: I need to concentrate.

As the girl labored for a few more moments, Sakura stared into the retreating fog, wondering how Kakashi-sensei and Naruto were faring. Just as she began to ponder their safety, she saw a blurry orange figure running towards them.

"Naruto!" Sakura waved him over, unusually glad to see him.

She let her hand fall as he drew closer, smiling at his shout of "Sakura-chan!" Now if the troublemaker was here, where was their teacher?

* * *

Kakashi pulled his hand out of the dead boy, Chidori fading, and barely managed to avoid a sword swing that would have cut him in half. Zabuza escaped his dog prison, body moving slowly, arms useless after the few minute '_sparring_' match he'd tried to avoid further injury in. The Demon of the Mist hadn't even come close to reaching his goal; Kakashi had more stamina then him, and his tool had died protecting his master. The mental and physical pain only increased his rage at that one person who had taken it away from his. 

Gatou.

The man, an army of threatening thugs behind him, stood insanely proud before the missing-nin he now criticized for being weak. The power hungry merchant was surprised, though, when Zabuza and Kakashi called a truce. It was time for him to die, and the Demon didn't care how many petty thugs he took with him.

Running at a speed close to his normal, even as his dying body responded to his last will, arms dangling uselessly and a borrowed kunai in his mouth, Zabuza made it past the retreating gang-bangerstoward his ultimate goal. Revenge.

"If I'm going to Hell, you're coming with me," the Demon whispered to the frightened Gatou, who was calling for his equally frightened guards to kill '_the bastard_' in front of him. But before any could react, their meal ticket was killed and Zabuza had run back to Kakashi's side, body lagging.

Instead of retreating like he'd thought they would, the petty assassin-wanna-bes chose to attack the tired defenders. The blonde kid who'd gone against Haku, the one and only loud mouth Uzumaki Naruto, startled the thieves with a Kage Bushin as did the Copy Nin Kakashi. Suddenly the brat who took after the former, Inari, charged in with all the able-bodied villagers who began to cheer after the gray haired man told them something.

Zabuza's time was almost up, but he had one last request. "Bring him here, would you?" Haku's most-precious-person asked as a final wish.

And Haku was suddenly next to him, eyes closed and face as beautifully pale as ever. He had many regrets, but the Demon called Zabuza decided helping the pureheart was not one of them.

'_I wish I could go to the same place as you_,' he thought, tears streaming down his cheeks and onto the cement as he touched the one he considered as a blessing's cheek.

Snow began to fall, and he heard a voice saying something softly but clearly, something he didn't understand. He knew, somehow, it was a blessing of eternal peace.

"_Harai risaino, Shirita-Kaiyan rasu shaw ouki dow gaaran._"

Calmness washed over him, and as Zabuza slipped into oblivion, he finally found peace.

* * *

Finally; the last to die this day. 

It took all her will not to just pass out right then and there. It usually wasn't her place to put angry spirits to rest, but Auron had taken it upon herself to do so seeing as no one else knew how.

The words were Old and she chanted them three times just to be sure the killer heard her as he passed on. With her Spelled eyes, she saw her old friend take him by the hand and lead him along with the pureheart through a dimensional hole to the afterlife. Sighing in contentment, she noticed the confused stares of Sakura and Tazuna,but they forgot herpresence as theone called Sasuke-kun began to stir.

Sakura pushed the white-clothed girl out of the way, hugging her beloved tightly until he managed to gasp a "can't breathe!" through his wheezing. Auron just smiled at their antics, a part of her wondering why all this seemed so familiar, but from where...?

The army of thugs the fighting men had scared off scrambled for the packed boats, some ending up in the ocean and almost drowning. There she laughed, earning herself the attention of two exhausted ninja. Sakura was fussing over her friend, the bridge builder was thanking the little boy who seemed to be a relative, and two blonde and gray haired males were walking towards her.

Tilting her head in confusion, Auron stared at them both, shifting into a more comfortable position. The young blonde was running still full of energy the older following at a more wary pace. Were they threatened by her, she wondered.

She just blinked in surprise as the boy who'd introduced himself as Uzumaki Naruto, Future Hokage, bombarded her with questions from "Did you see how awesome I was?" to "What's your name? Where are you from?" She was so overwhelmed with the blonde's excitement and curiosity she hadn't stopped to wonder why he was asking them of her.

Before she could reply to any of the questions she'd remembered or he'd repeated, the gray haired fighter picked the blonde up by his orange suit's collar and shushed him. Pouting, the roudy youngone crossed his arms and glared at his comrad through squinted eyes.

Turning his lazy eye to the sitting girl one knee pulled to her body, the other leg laying flat out on the pavement, arms crossed in a position reeking of tiredness , Kakashi stared for a moment before setting the blonde down and patting the still pouting boy on the head.

Smiling his arch-eyed smile, the jounin instructed his students to head back to Tazuna's daughter's house and take care of the dead and wounded, all the while paying close attention to the girl he targeted. Sakura, seeing where he was staring, began to protest.

"But Kakashi-sensei! What about _your_ injuries!"

The jounin just waved them off. "I can wait a little longer."

Seeing that her approach wasn't working, Sakura tried a different way. Bowing slightly to the laying girl, the pink kunoichi said, "Thank you for helping Sasuke-kun. If it wasn't for you, he could have been injured more than he already is." The flower-named-girl glanced to where said raven haired Uchiha was being hauled away on a stretcher by the village healer and his subordinates, a sad look evident in her eyes.

Auron just smiled and nodded, managing, "Don't mention it," before being bombarded with questions once again by an enthusiastic gennin. The girl just sweatdropped and tried to calm the blonde kitsune down, slightly nervous under Kakashi surprised and calculating gaze. The way he looked at her reminded Auron of Suvannah-baka, and she didn't like it overly much.

"How'd you help?" came the final whined question.

Auron was happy to answer that one. "Well, Uzumaki-san, I only pulled the needles near your friend's vital points out." Before the sensei could ask, she explained, "You see, my...elder cousin was an expert acupuncture healer and he often used needles in various animals and some humans. I have...experience dealing with that sort of thing."

Naruto stared at her with wide eyes, surprised that she had not only helped his rival without messing up but also had been so polite! No one called him 'Uzumaki-san'; why would they? It was either monster, dobe, or Naruto-kun, though he preferred the latter best. Stars began to form as he unconsciously glomped the girl, oblivious to her obvious discomfort.

"Thank yooooooooou!"

Everyone blinked and sweatdropped, some muttering '_idiot_' under their breaths. That earned them a glare from the girl who heard, now patting the boy hesitantly on his back. Kakashi smiled as she did so, thinking the blonde had earned himself another friend, even if he still wanted to know where she'd come from.

As everyone began to leave the still-unfinished bridge and the sun set, Naruto still hadn't loosened his hold around the girl's neck. Sakura helped the drooping Kakashi back to the village while Inari was taken back as a young hero for restoring the village spirit. But the smaller boy hadn't even stirred, even when the fretting girl had tried to shake him.

Naruto mumbled something, and Auron mentally kicked herself for not noticing before. He was asleep! She smiled down at the blonde now snuggling against her tatters that used to be clothes, and couldn't help but love him as a brother right away. He reminded her of someone, and even if she wasn't sure who, she knew she would remember sometime or another.

Cradling the surprisingly light boy (_did he even eat that much!_) in weary but strong arms against her stomach and chest, Auron carried the warm body in the direction his friends had gone. Though she usually avoided physical contact of any kind if possible, the girl remembered all the times she'd wanted to be hugged and have the warmth of a caring body to protect her from the boring life of a possible Heiress.

Sighing to herself, Auron smiled down at the boy's angelic face. She'd only seen one other person sleep, and that was by accident. No one but her servant friend Soran had seen _her_ asleep and unguarded; it was forbidden in the Flordina Plains to be vulnerable when someone else was around. No one knew why; it was a tradition unbroken for many centuries and because of it many House members had terrible cases of insomnia. Auron had one such case, one of the few who only slept about 9 hours every week if that. (She rested fine, just found the premonition dreams too troublesome to bother with.)

And here was the most innocent boy she'd ever seen, a pure boy who knew darkness all too well. He would be a light...

Wait a'minute!

Why? Why was she here, in the legendary Kistubi-sama's early years! Carrying said Hero of Time in her arms, no less! But none of the scrolls she'd read that mentioned him ever talked of one such as herself in her Lord's life...

So. She knew what was to happen and could change things for the better, if she wished. But Auron wasn't one to meddle in things that didn't concern her, but hadn't she already? Uchiha Sasuke, the soon-to-be shirigan user and one not quite right of mind, had been released from his death-like state sooner than he was supposed to. And she'd actually talked to them, told the hero-in-training about Doctor, her older cousin.

Kami-san! Paiyan-san() was going to lecture her to death for this!

As the steady girl and sleeping boy arrived at the bridge-builder's home, Sakura came rushing out, Kakashi right behind her. In their concern for the Sasuke-boy's well being, they'd forgotten Naruto was in the stranger's clutches (at least the pervert thought that; too many Icha Icha Paradises). The foreign girl only smiled as they rushed to take their friend.

Auron handed the limp body of the kyuubi carrier to the taller of the two, bowed, and began to walk away. Before she could go far, though, Sakura called after her. "Wait!'

The girl came running up, a question on her lips. "Who are you?"

It was standard, it was expected, it was _troublesome_! Lopeona (_wince_) just sighed internally, deciding to use discretion. "Auron. You may call me Auron." Then continued to walk.

"Airun?" Sakura muttered in confusion before giggling. '_What kind of name is that?_!' asked Inner-Sakura.

Kakashi, on the other hand, was running through the missing-nin list in the back of his mind, looking for a name or description similar. He came up with nothing. Droopy and a little down hearted, started at the strange helper's retreating back. '_Airan...ka?_' he thought before walking back inside, his student trailing behind him.

Nine days later, they left with Naruto with tears and another secret.()

* * *

Auron yawned and stretched as she exited the wooden shack, smiling to herself as she watched the sun rise for the tenth time over the still slumbering village. Yesterday the Leaf shinobi had disembarked, the energetic blonde waving goodbye to both his new friends as Tazuna finally named the bridge. Great Naruto Bridge, which suited them all just fine. 

She could see the sea a few miles away, the edge of the town just below her perch point. The townsfolk were extremely wary of her, but the Chikichi family was kind enough to take the unfortunate girl in and let her use the rundown shack at the edge of the woods as shelter. They even fed her, if she helped with the chores.

Sweatdropping as she remembered the embarrassment of not know how to wash dishes, much to the Chikichi clan's amazement, Auron headed down the path and to the kind family's home to help the grandmotherly woman named Natsume with breakfast preparations.

But when she arrived at the house an hour or so later, not only was breakfast cooked and delicious but she was to learn a new skill: how to fix a fishing net.

Sighing to herself as the young son of the Chikichi family supervised her knot-tying until she didn't tangle her fingers so easily, Airan -as they called her, trying to pronounce her name 'Auron'- muttered something under her breathe. That was until the village 'hero' ran down the path way, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"They're coming!" Inari shouted, running down the seashore lane. "They're here!" Who? Auron wondered.

**Owari Chapter One

* * *

**

E/N: That's chapter one! The next, Chapter Two, should be up in a few days.

Next Chapter: Two: Time's Illusions (on the road) (Who's coming? Attackers? Or did Gatou have an accomplice?)

**1- ...Auron's Bloodline Limit...**

I would tell you, really, but it's a secret for later chapters. Something to do with a missing-nin's past (no, not Orochimaru, the snake bastard) and one of the demon children (maybe our lovely Naruto, we'll see).

**2- ...Old Language...**

Thank you, Kuroten my friend, for letting me use the OL from your story _Spirit Child of Demon Eyes_. Too bad you can't update!

The Old Language is the root words for all mage spells and has been used since the beginning of the world, though the original form was lost many a century ago.

**3- ...Naruto's New Secret...**

Will be stated in later chapters. Nothing special; just something he'll treasure as a gift of being acknowledged. And yes, it's from Auron.

_Li_


	3. Chapter Two: Time's Illusions

****

Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter

By: Li

Summary: '_She wasn't trained as a ninja, wasn't even supposed to be here. So why was she?_' Auron was sent from her mystic home by a miscast spell and to a misty construction site. After helping move the injured and burying the dead, Auron met the Chikichi family, who kindly took her in as a paid servant. Now the hero/neighbor Inari(-kun) is yelling in excitement that someone is coming. But who?

A/N: Chapter Two, as promised. I'll have to take a break for a week. Gomen.

**IMPORTANT NOTE!** The first five chapters are about Auron and her guard's (to be told who below) travels. In chapter six, she finally arrives in Konoha and meets up with Naruto yet again, turning the Hidden Village upside down. She only changes minor events, such as a new gennin team will be in the finals. (No spoilers, maybe I'll tell you in later chapters, or wait until chapter 11, when it's supposed to be.)

**Warning:** maybe hinted shojo-ai/shounen-ai, no yaoi or yuri; disruptive OC

**(1)** means to see the ending notes or glossary

"_Foreign language._"

**Spirits and Gods**

_Flashback is like this._

--_mind speach_--

* * *

****

Chapter Two: Time's Illusions (on the road)

* * *

_"They're coming!" Inari shouted, running down the seashore land and past Clan Chikichi's home. "They're here!" Who? Auron wondered to herself._

He was so excited, Inari didn't notice the weird, new servant at his working friend's family's house visably tense. Nor did he realize, running full-speed-ahead, the girl who barely talked whisper something under her breath, something he wouldn't have understood even if he had. (_Is it _them_ again?_)

But he was hyper, despite his hunger, at the new merchant's now crossing the Great Naruto Bridge, the first one to venture across the sturdy structure. They had guards from a Hidden Village (he only knew from the flash of sunlight on their _hitai-ate_, but not the origin of their town) and the salesman most likely brought food and other necessities to sell or trade at a lower price than normal, seeing as their economics were still so low.

Said girl, called Airan in the village as they'd tried to pronouce her foreign name Auron, stood up from the fishing net she'd been repairing (or trying to) for the last week and stepped into the house of the Chikichi family (the old couple and their grandchild kind enough to let her stay).

Thankful as she was, the girl made herself as useful as possible, even if she didn't know how to do anything they asked very well. And though curious, the kind family didn't push the subject of her origin before then or her odd behavior, taking the girl's lapses of silence as amnesia or something similar. '_An old servant of Gatou's who'd seen too much and wanted to forget,_' the old grandmother had silently guessed along with her ancient husband?

Pushing the curtain into the house's shop aside, Auron silently reached for the empty basket near the door, nodding in acknowledgement to the young boy gutting a fish in a corner behind the counter. Jingi, the older man of the elderly Chikichi couple, smiled at her, overlooking the child's work. He knew she would go into the forest and collect herbs and edible plants, not coming back until well after dark to give them some of her treasures. He accepted her eccentricism and continued to encourage it even if his wife, Natsume, seemed a bit wary at her oddity.

Returning the man's infectious smile, she pulled the curtain back and headed towards the forest, wanting to check on her patient as soon as possible.

* * *

Leaning over the beautiously peaceful body of her patient, smiing at the bright, pure soul that should have occupied it reminded the girl of when Shunhi-kun() had visited and the first time she'd met the boy named Haku. (_Spirit, rather, she mused._)

**...Flashback Sequence (engaged)...**

Auron, no matter where she was or what had happened, enjoyed sleeping despite her insomnia. But the waking up part, she hated that with a passion. Especially rude awakenings by hyper gods. That just plain sucked, and annoyed her so much Skuien didn't even have to take over to express the girl's anger or irritation.

**"Up! Up! I need your help, lazy human!**_" _

Auron jolted herself awake, grabbing the prancing pretty-boy by his short pony tail and pulled. The pacing figure ceased to rant and instead fell to the ground beside her as she lay back down, attempting to go back to sleep.

An irritated dark man prevented her from doing as she pleased.

**"Seriously, Auron-san! This is an emergency!**_ the god stated, shaking the girl by a blue yukata-clad shoulder. _

Sighing in defeat, Auron rolled over lazily, cracking one eyes open. "What is it this time, Shunhi-san? Athne-chan's birthday isn't for another moon." If it was possible to talk casually to a god of death as if it happened all the time (which it did), think of all the other unusual things 'Airan' could do.

The deadly-gorgeous face inches from her own was twisted with stress and desperation, by no means obscurring his pale beauty. Dark eyes stared back into her own ice blue, full of panic and helplessness, two emotions never should appear on a death collector's face at any time.

Auron blinked both eyes open and yawned, stretching tense arm muscles. Cracking irritating bones back in place, the light girl play with the dark man's midnight-blue hair, seemingly bored despite her friend's obvious worry.

"What is it you need this time, Shun-kun? More advice?" Last time he had come, Athne() and his own anniversary (too many years to count) was drawing near and he hadn't known what to get her. Seeing as she was his only female (mortal) friend and knew his consort well, Auron was the only one who could have helped in any way.

Shunhi relaxed, though still nervous, and explained in a rather calm voice**, "You remember the battle on the bridge and the two Mist nin who died?**_ Auron nodded, now knowing it had something to do with their souls.** "The young boy can't rest in peace too troubled and the man is still being weighed.**_

Auron raised and eyebrow in surprise, too deep in thought to show any other sign of emotion. A troubled spirit would turn into a vengeful spirit, and a fate such as that wouldn't fit such a pure boy. As for the man he had so many crimes in his name, wouldn't his next life result of it? Or would he go to Hell? Said something for Kamiland's legal system, if nothing else.

"How so?" she asked after an eternity of pondering, which had only resulted in the God's tensing yet again.**"The boy, Haku, worries for his important person and won't rest in peace until he knows the final decision,**_ he explained, voice calm as always but body rigid. Auron just nodded for him to continue. **"Zabuza, the man, had reasons for doing what he did, and in the end, found pure love, even if he only admitted it to himself before death.**_

Auron just nodded in understanding. After much thought, she'd come to a conclusion that would result in peace for both spirits and help in self in the process.

"Summon Haku, Zabuza, and their release forms, would ya?"

In dense confusion, Shunhi nodded and snapped slim, detailed-too-perfect fingers together in silent summoning.

There stood two transparent beings before the laying pair, one tensed and troubled, the other without a care in the world. One at peace for deciding his own fate, the other in turmoil because of it; their roles and attitudes had been switched in death, it seemed.

The dark beauty god stood, straight and tall, to address his current charges,** "The High Lady Lopeona Talance -Fifth Heir of Main House, 20th Heir to Wing House, and Sixty-seventh Heiress to Horn House- of the Floridina Plains wishes to address former Demon of the Mist Zabuza and his accomplice Haku in the sentencing of their souls,**_ the man stated formally. _

Both spirits blinked in confusion and surprise as Auron just sighed in slight annoyance, stood and stretched again. Both transparent beings sized her up, but only one dared comment.**"-_That's_- your High Lady, someone who decides peoples' afterlives? More like a brat or living ragdoll, if you ask me.**_ Zabuza folded his arms after his snapped comment, tranquil air that had been about him gone far away. _

Shunhi didn't even flinch, leaving his friend to handle this one. If she'd needed his assistance, she would have signaled so by now.

Said girl just yawned, hand over mouth, not jumping at the bait like she normally would have. There was a successfully way to handle this, and exchanging insults (at least with others starting the argument) wasn't in it.

Cracking a drousy eye open, Auron glanced at the tall dark haired man as she leaned her back against the tree she'd been laying under. "Your Zabuza, right? Called a demon?"

The one she addressed tensed, then nodded warily (What is it with people and discretion here?_). He seemed to expect something from her, waiting for ther girl to say the words he so dreaded yet anticipated at the same time, "Sweet Hell fire for you." or something along those lines. _

"Insulting." Both souls tensed, though neither spoke. "Demons aren't all murderers and evil entities. Geeze! You'd think human kind would wise up a bit in that area. But noooo! Still closeminded fools. Need to grow up, they do."

**"And you're not?**_ Haku, politely asking. Who would've thought someone raised by a so called 'demon' could have manners. _

Auron stopped midyawn, open eye glancing at the boy who'd just spoken. Dropping her hand to her side, the Lady just smiled enigmaticly.

**"Not entirely."**

Shunhi took this as his cue to enter again, pulling shimmering papers out of thin air and handing them to Auron. The spirits watched in exchange silently, not daring to hope against the decision they so clung to.

With a sigh, Auron bit her thumb, much to the ghost's surprise, and signed the pages with her thrice blood, licking the wound when she was done.

**"Ah, good. All's in order, then. Zabuza-san, if you would please come with me. haku-san, Auron-san will explain,**_the god stated, demeaner having relaxed once he'd realized what was happening. You could always count on Auron for unexpected but efficent solutions, he decided. _

The former assasinwent rigid, and his once-tool didn't know whether to grip his hand tightly in reassurance or ask the dreaded question. He settled for both

**Where to?**_ Auron just smiled. _

"A peaceful place called Flordina Plains. You'll find a new life there as a reincarnation, Zabuza-san. You won't remember them either."

Haku was slightly confused, though hid it well under his outward mask, as the man beside him relaxed as if something weighing tons had just been lifted out of his life and taken by another.

Zabuza squeezed the pureheart's hand in reassurence one final time before ruffling Haku's long, transparent hair, turning to leave. The snow-like one didn't want his most precious person to go, but a force was holding his mouth shut and keeping him were he was.

As soon as the God and former called-demon were gone, so was the paralasis. Haku whirled on the relaxed girl, wanting to take out his fury on someone someone who to blame for his now useless stature

**"Why?**_ he asked coldly.** "Why? you took away my meaning to exist!**__He wanted to physically make her tell him, but he knew spirits shouldn't touch normal humans. But she wasn't normal, so maybe?... _

She held up a hand in the standard 'stop' position. "No, don't." The tone was wary, tired, warning."Why shouldn't I?_" Haku asked suspiciously. _

"You'll only hurt yourself if you do so. Now, please, let me explain."

A moment of tense silence later, Haku nodded reluctantly.

"Zabuza-san needs a peaceful place with no conflict; a place to start over. Flordina, my home, is the only such place I know of that exists. Now, don't worry. He won't forget you. How could someone you loved forget such a beautius person such as yourself?"

Auron smirked as Haku blushed, forgetting his anger and rage for a moment. She could understand, having someone so important to you taken away, and not being able to spot it from happening in the least.

"When you die, you'll be able to join him. Maybe be together again, eh?" She said the last part suggestively, causing another, even darker, red to appear on the boy's pale cheeks. His eyes lit up in confusion as his mind registered the first part, though.

**"But I'm already dead,**_ came the startled protest. Auron just grinned manically. _

"Oh no you're not. You'll be alive and packing a punch in double 5 sun sets if I can help it! You'd better gather as much recent information you can while still a spirit. Never know what could come in handy, knowing."

**"How?"** Still confused? I thought it was quite obvious, really.

"I'll heal your body, you protect me with it. Fair enough deal, right? I get the guard I need, you get a second chance at life. Bet you want to fight Kitsubi-sama again, ne? The one and only Uzumaki Naruto?"

But Haku wasn't listening. Her words were echoing in his spirit mind, still unable to find a place to draw in...Second chance at life...

Auron had just smiled and begun to dig up his fresh grave. Thankfully Shunhi-kun had proserved their bodies with his power in case she'd require them

**...Flashback Sequence (disengaged)...**

And today Haku returned to his now-healed body for good; the day Auron played the rule of shinigami instead of her good friend Shunhi. She just hoped the pureheart had thought about his knew information; his old identity was classified as deceased, and he needed a new name.

But the part she hated most of playing god was the transferal of energy; she had to give the patient some of her own life eccense for them to be bound to her and live as long as the player did. Depending on how much she gave would deside how strong the bound, and since she wanted one that would allow them to transfer thoughts, she knew she'd have to give a lot. No powerful spells for a few weeks, then.

Grumbling to herself, Auron took a speceil blade she used for ritual perposed only, and cut open her neck artery, bypassing the protective spells easily. Instead of blood, a gray-silver misty flowed from the cut in waves and into the still body's mouth, causing said body to jerk as the energy entered it's chakra system, restoring lost life.

Her body went numb, it was painless so far, but Auron had done this a few times before. This was only the start; things would get a lot worse and it would hurt like Hell. She was right, and screamed silently all the more for it.

* * *

Haku's new mistess, on their way to the place she lived at the moment, had told him to called her Airan after verually twitching every time he tried to pronouce her foreing name 'Rohpiena-sama'. The name was just too hard for him to say, and calling the mysterious girl that name which sounded like some sort of disagreeable food wasn't helping. And why did she dislike her birth name so much to ignore him when he called? 

Sighing to himself, the pale boy stared at his new master's back, still trying to get used to being in a body again. He never knew it could be so constricting! As a spirit, you could fly, which to his own surprised was fulfilling in a way he never knew. Nothing was solid, either; he could walk on the tree tops with his feet drifting through the fresh leaves.

Now he had trouble walking, how could he fight!

Haku remembered the conditions of his second chance at life: protect the enigmic girl called a High Lady of some country he'd never heard of and maybe get a vacation now and then. The last part had been insistted on by a goddess called Athne, the one who'd come with his shinigami Shunhi-sama, when both had come after the girl had joined Haku's body and soul once again.

'_**Her power,'** the death god had said to him**, 'is something not to be taken lightly. The Heiress needs to be protected, mainly by you, for now.**_,'

The snow-like one wondered what he had meant by that when the mistress he was to call both Airan and cousin (their make-beleive past) stopped her walking. The girl, a few years younger then himself he was sure, turned to smile at him and announced, "Welcome to our temporary home! It's not much, but I'm not complaining." She then procedded to drag him into a peaceful clearing, the run-down shack in the middle hardly what he'd expected.

A thick grove of trees surrounded the clearing on three sides, well-worn path accross the feild. The wodden struture that could bearly passed as a hermit's shelter stood in the middle, a good ten kilometers between the forest edges and building on all the greenery sides, the space filled with all sorts of plant life. Haku's face lit up in a smile. There were plenty of herbs to experiment with!

On the fourth side, to his right and aproxomently fifty meters or so away, a cut in the forest line overlooked tree tops. As the boy slowly walked along the cliff to it's drop-point, the ground slowly rising a few cm every step, Haku's breathe caught in his through. A few miles of green streched out before him, then some brown rooves and tan sand, then the endless ocean caught his gaze. It reflected all that happened in the sky, and to him this moment was most beautiful.

The sun was setting.

The little-boy Haku had always watched them with his mother and father when he was younger, but stopped after his own insident. But when Zabuza had taken him in, the pale boy had acctionally stared at the sky as he rose from slumber, but not as often as before.

The eternal water reflexed pleasent colors that calmed the soul and could make a heart melt; red, orange, yellow, molten gold -the words didn't due the sight justice. "It's so beautiful," Haku whispered in awe.

Giggle, turn, smile: "Yes, it truely is. But you'll see more; count on me to show you." Airan took his hand, staring the her guard with warm icy eyes. "I trust you; my life is in your hands. Make your preciese person proud, alright?"

Haku just nodded, awed by the sight before him and the girl's words. What had happened to the lazy, protesting Lady the had revived him? Who -no, **what**- exacly was she?

He felt a slight pain in his hand, and stood paralized in place as his new mistress carved something on the under side of his wrist with a knife-like object he didn't recognize. It was shaped similair to a scapple, but the metal was far stronger and the blade longer than a regular one. The handle curver against the girl's fingers as if it was made to fit, the shining blade reflecting the sunset's light on an eerily near-transparent blade.

The symbles dark blood poored out of began to heal as soon as she pulled away, the dripping liquid only a reminder of the pain he'd just felt, which was slowly begin to fade. He didn't know what the girl had carved into him, the lines where twisted and oddly shaped like nothing he knew of, and he didn't think he wanted to.

Pulling the blade away (there was surprisingly no blood on said object), Airan expalined, "I just gave you the gift of telepathy with anyone who knows about mind channeling, rapid healing similar to the boy you fought, and automatic language translation."

Haku was confused. "What would I need to know other speach for?"

"_To talk to me, of course,_" she said with a smile.

"To talk-" He then realized what she'd said wasn't in his native thounge, but rather a harsher-sounding speach that didn't roll off the thounge quite like his nartural language did.

Auron just sighed and smiled wanly at him. "We'll sleep here for the night, then I'll introduce you to my temporarily employers."

"Hai, Airan-sama," Haku said obediently and nodded.

The girl who'd started walking stopped and turned to him, wearing a surprisingly stern look. "That's Kandai Shurina-san to you! It's my temporary name, as yours is Shinsetsu Kohaina. Call me Ai-chan, if you want, too. I don't mind." The newly named boy just stopped dead, eyes wide and mouth agape, as the smiling girl continued to walk.

He snapped out of his stutter soon enough to see his mistress's figure walk into the shack and shouted, "Wait, please!" This was the begining of a beautiful partnership. (sarcasism)

* * *

The Chikichis just stared as their payed servent walked in with one of the most perfect looking effefimine figures they'd ever seen, face like a carved angel and aditute modestly exceptible. Jingi, the old man, was blocking a nose bleed while his anceint wife almost fainted, the '_girl_' reminding her of herself at that age. The grandchild was blushing, hiding behind Natsume's wide yukata shyly. 

Auron just smiled and inwardly chuckled sadisticly. Wait until they were infatuated with him being a her and then break the news! She couldn't wait to see their shocked faces.

Outwardly, the girl was as happy and helpful-looking as ever, with only Haku knowing her thoughts via telecomunication. "This is my cousin, Shinsetsu Kohaina," Auron set a hand of her '_cousin's_' shoulder. "He came all the way from my home to travel with me! Isn't that nice?"

The old man's face looked crushed he'd been fantisizing about another male!as Natsume just stopped herself from squeeling like a fangirl -she'd always wanted to meet a bishounen besides her huspand. The young boy was confused at first, then smiled up at the other male and grabbing his hand, earning the guard's attention.

"Will you play with me and Ai-'nee-san, Ko-'nii-san?" he asked cutely, staring up with eyes full of hope.

Auron just snickered inwardly as Haku blushed and nodded, likely not used to children wanting to play. Smiling and patting the boy on the head, then ruffling his hair affectionately, the girl said cheerfully, "What shall me play, oh young master? Walking-on-water again?"

The boy's face lit up and he beamed at the girl, unaware of his grandparent's -one chuckled, the other seethed- expressions as he let out a loud, "Yeah!"

Auron grabbed Haku's arm and smiled reassuringly as the boy, Kurori, dragged them out the door and toward the surf.

'_It'll be fine_,' she mind-whispered, trying to make his fears unfounded.

He surely hoped so.

* * *

Kurori had the bad luck to litterally run into a caravan merchent as he dragged his older friends toward the ocean. The man toppled over to his side, the boy falling on his behind only to be helped up by a concerned Auron. Haku reached out a hand to help the man, who upon seeing the angel (as he called the boy) standing above him, dove in for an unwanted kiss. 

His face met the sole of a wooden shoe, Auron's to be presise.

Wilting from the blow (his lust-driven force recoiled back at him) and drifting to the ground in a puddle of sorrow, his gray eyes met firey ice-blue orbs flaring with supressed anger. "No one touches my cousin without my premission."

'_I'm your property?_' Haku asked her silently.

'_Of course not. I'm just being the overprotective relative keeping the lovely one from getting attacked by perverts_,' was the laughing reply.

'_I can take care of myself, you know,_' the boy shot back.

Auron just mentally laughed. '_Yes, yes, I know. I'll protect us both from these types of things if you handle combat, alright? Besides, this is fun, and though I do find it quite troublesome, the chance to belittle someone such as him is too good to pass up._'

Haku just sighed and silently agreed, knowing he didn't have a real choise in the matter. Auron just flashed him a quick smiled, then turned back to the rising man.

"Your cousin?" he asked, glaring at the one who'd prevented him a glorious kiss on those red lip he'd fallen for.

Auron just smiled coldly, and to Haku it looked almost real. To the rest, it made them either shiver or tense. "Of course. My dearest cousin, whom is in my charge until we get home."

"Then I, Mitaku Funno, subordinate of the caravan master," he pointed to himself and puffed out his chest, hoping to impress his angel, "challenge you," meaning Auron, "to a battle of wits!" Haku just gave him a blank look and turned away, causing the man to Rock-Lee-melt (when the Leaf gennin gets rejected by Sakura) and mushroom-sigh.

The challenged teen just blinked in confusions. "Over what?"

The man inmeaditately perked up. "For this lovely one's hand, of course!" Funno attempted to grab Haku's hand, but was batted away with a sick from the nasiated boy. He didn't seem to like all this attention from other males, wishing he still had his hunter-nin mask. Atleast then he'd inspired fear to all, not unwanted lust in most men and some strange women.

"I have no intention of marrying my cousin," Auron said in a flat tone, turning away.

The man looked thoughtful, "That's understandable..." He trailed off, hand under chin and eyes swuinted, only realizing he'd been tricked. "What?"

Auron just turned nonchalantly, staring coolly at the man about to follow. "Besides, don't you have a boyfriend already? You hang out with all those men in the caravan." Haku just sweatdropped and began to back away, the man looking confused.

"What do you mean? I like women!" He was furious. Who was this girl to deprive him of his angel?

"Then why are you going after Shinsetsu-san?" Funno still looked refused, and Auron just sighed. Subtality was lost to guys like him, so she'd have to spell it out. "**He**'s a guy, you dolt!"

Haku and his mistress walked away without a backward glance at the shocked man in a coma-like state, fallen in the road. The next day one of the man's friends saw him mummbling something to himself about wonders of the world and look him back to the caravan's camp, unaware that a chestnut haired stranger was laughing all the while.

* * *

"I've desided to join the caravan, Jingi-san," Auron annouced during dinner two days later. The family stopped mid-mouthful, staring at the announcer with curious gazes (in Natsume's case, gaping mouth) as she calmly took a bite of the fish broth. Smiling, the girl commented, "This is as wonderful as ever, Natsume-san. I'll miss your cooking greatly." 

"WHAT?" shouted the outraged old woman, slamming wrinkled fists on the table. The young boy she'd grown found of, this youth -Kurori- who reminded her of someone she'd known so long ago, looked as if he'd cry. The grandmother just continued to rant, unaware of her grandchild's state.

"You're **leaving**? After we took you, a charity case, in! Gave you a place to stay, highered you as a servent even though you didn't know a _thing_ about **anything**, and fed you so you wouldn't starve? As your employer, I refuse to let you go!" Through all this Haku had kept a tense silence, about ready to snap at the old _hag_ who dare threaten his mistress. But a voice in his head stopped him from taking action.

'_You stepping in will not help, aite(partner). Please, trust me to handle this. If I am ever in serious danger, I will look to you, aibou(partner)._' Auron's mental words helped relaxe his tense form some what, but refering to him as _partner_ in his native tounge did it more so. In all his year will Zabuza, he'd always been a tool. How things had changed!

Auron, on the other hand, just sighed and stopped the old woman's rantings with a raised hand and calm voice. "Please calm yourself, _touji-san_(mistress/housekeeper). Berate me all you like, but another time please. Your grandson is on the verge of tears because of it."

"Wha-?" screached the woman, glancing at her precies daughter's only son. Surely enough, the servent was right; his cheeks were tear stained and he tried his best to surpress is desire to sob.

Craddling the youth in her ancient but strong arms, Natsume turned to the girl with a dirty look. "Don't do anything; stay where you are until I come back." The elder's tone was sharp, bordering on hurting, but Auron hadn't lived with an overlystrict grandmother without learning a few tricks on how to push these types' buttons. Nodding in understand, the girl smiled in a pleasent way that you knew would irriate the woman to no end.

Turning that irritation to anger, Natsume's eyes said all. But not daring to take action and continue their yelling fit, the older female stomped off, trying in vain not to gar the sobbing boy's body too much.

When they were out of sight and hearing range, Jingi turned to the kneeling two. "I'm sorry for Nat-chan," he apologized, calling his wife a name originating from their youth. "She's a little rough to people who reminding her of...the man she was supposed to marry, and those who threaten our family..." He traled off, squinted eyes lost in age old memories.

Auron smiled genuinely, "But you married her, didn't you? I congraduate you early for your fiftith anerversary, Jingi-san. You must love this '_rough woman_' of your's quite a lot, to put up with her that long."

The elderly fisherman blushed, rubbing the back of his head. The youthes before him just laughed, Auron nodding in confermation then turned serious.

"You know why I have to go, don't you?" she questioned, hands on folded knees.

Jingi just nodded once, his old face crinkled with worry. He glanced at the door, then said softly, "You know, Kuro-kun has gotten rather fonder of you then you might think. It would be a shame for him to get depressed because of you." The old man looked up, the air full of tension, and continued with a smile at the end, "Come back alive, and with your memory, alright? Feel free to visit anytime."

Auron smiled in return (_You just can't help but smile around someone like him, she thought._), glancing at Haku. "I'll be sure to bring friends next time, too," she replied, sighing mentally. It may be a lie, or turn out to be the truth.

The old man nodded, misinterpretting her words. "When do you leave?" he asked suddenly.

"Ten AM tommarrow."

"We'll see you off, then."

"Thank you."

The old man grinned. "No need. You helped us enough to deserve that, especially since you're my grandson's only pretty female friend." His eyes twinkled with hidden mirth and indication, causing Haku to blush but Auron to laugh merrily.

"I'll see you there."

* * *

And see them off they did. Inari-kun stood next to his grandfather and friend Kurori, knowing that the boy was fond of the girl now leaving. He knew how it felt, to see a friend leave; Naruto hand gone with a wave and a smile while he'd sobbed. His friend was holding the hand of his old grandmother, Tazuna's first cousin, and clutching his own tightly. 

Natsume was instructing the leaving girl in everything she found important, from dayly stops to what to do if one of the men gropped her ("Slap 'em good, glare, then grab the nearest long wooden object and beat 'em. Works every time.)

Jingi stood behind his wife, carrying a heavily-wrapped package with both arms, waiting for Auron to arrive. She and her cousin had disappeared sometime earily that morning, along with their things, and had to reach departing area.

Noticing the growing crouch, the caravan driver asked them, "W'as goin' on 'ere? Come ti' see oos off? V'ry kind ah yeh, if yeh did." His accent was funny, and to the arriving duo sounded forced, which made some of the younger gathered laugh.

"No," snapped Natsume in reply. "We're here to see that no-good servent of mine off. Where is that girl, anyway?" Kurori glared at his grandmother for calling his friend a no-good servent, but was ignored as someone called, "Right here, Natsume-san. I hope I didn't keep you all waiting long!"

The grandchild jumped for joy, running towards his departing pal only to be caught in her arms and be swung around repeatedly. Settling the child on her hip, smiling at the croud. Her clothes had changed; instead of the loose-fitting yukata borrowed from Chikichis (now in the pack Haku was carrying) she wore the underclothes to her original outfit. The white clothes was unsoled and reminded those ignorant enough of a ninja uniform, only without the vest, bandages, and weapon's case.

The caravan driver stared at the girl, then chuckled ruefully to himself, hiding a secretive smile. So this was the girl who his subbordinate had challenged to a battle of wits and lost to. What an interesting young lady... Could be she a missing-nin, maybe? He watched her movements as she trotted to the old woman who'd had the nerve to snap at _him_, and desided against his previous idea. She didn't move like a fighter, or seem to think like a killer either. But there was something strange, about herself and the older girl next to her... He'd have to watch and find out. Good thing they were in the same caravan...

Down below the man's perch atop the lead wagon, Auron was chatting nervously with a pissed-off Natsume who was lecturing the poor girl deaf about the values of being early, not late. Her huspand interupted her.

"Leave the girl be, Nat-chan. She's going away, and hasn't even opened her present yet," chidded the elderly man, who just smiled as Auron perched up. She'd never gotten a present from a human friend before. What could it be?

"Here you are." Without even waiting for him to finish, the girl grabbing the present and all but wripped the paper off it. A cloak similair to the now-tattered one she'd worn there fell loose in her arms, a matching white outfit underneith. It was almost exacly the same as her old outer clothes, complete with the Heiress of Three symble.

Glowing in joy, the girl pounced and almost knocked the man over (she set Kurori down, of course) with her thank you glomp/hug. The old man just laughed, making a jibe about pretty girls and _real_ gift thank yous. Despite his kindness, man could be quite perverted. Haku held his '_cousin's_' new clothes in wonder, not knowing what they so much resembled.

"Put them on! Put them on!" the youth Kurori prompted, wanting to see the outfit his grandparents worked so hard on not go to waste. He also wanted to see the girl in something other than that work yukata and odd foreign clothes she now wore.

Sweatdropping as the crowed watched intently as she took the outer clothes one by one and put them on with ease. For as complicated as they were, she was used to the loose white clothe covering most of her body in three (one thick, two thin) layers. The cloak was last, and she finally noticed what was embriodered hugely on the back's middle: the same sign on her old, torn one; the OL symble for Peace.

Clasping the marble lock in place (to hold the cloak around her neck), Auron whirled around, the clothes flowing around her, and hugged Natsume. The old woman stuttered and blushed, returning the hug with much hesitation. The girl just pulled the woman in for a final queeze before releasing the stunned woman and turning to the cueing audience.

After all fare wells were said, Auron sighed then smiled warmly, eyes holding a touch of regret. She felt more at home here than she'd ever felt in the Flordina Plains, which was a place of responsibiliy with no family feeling besides her Obaba-sama's accational moods, which was rarer than any priceless gem.

Turning to the sniffing Kurori and hugging him close, she whispered to the boy beside him, "You are a hero, Inari-san, in more than just name. Ask your grandfather what I mean, as the Inari-sama I know shall be proud for you two to carry the same calling."

Leaving a confused boy and comforted friend, Auron turned to Haku. "Time to go, Shinsetsu-san."

"Hai, Airan-sama." Auron just sighed; the boy had gone back and began calling her Lady again after she'd won the battle of wits and pulled him out of the caravan man's clutches. For some reason, he was incrediably grateful that she'd helped him and not left the other teen to handle it on his own.

"Let's go, then." With a final wave to the gathered villagers, the girl walked calmly to the wagon she'd share with two men and another girl her own again, seemingly unaware of the caravan driver's eyes on her form.

With a whistle and flick of many reins, the caravan was off.

**Owari Chapter Two**

* * *

E/N: there's Chapter Two! I'll have to take a week or so off. Sorry! I have personal moving arrangements,like stay up for over 14 hours andhaving a bad case of ear-popping...so... 

Next Chapter: Three: Shadow's Dreaming (on a moonless night) (Traveling with a carvan now...Next stop: Village of the Hidden Mist. Will Haku be recognized?)

1- ...Back to Life: Ritual...

For the spell caster to play god and reanimate a person and join their soul to the body, they must give some of their life essence in turn. A ritual object of some kind is required to cut the neck or other vital artery so s/he's essence may poor out. Usually a dager or short sword of some sort, blessed by a powerful figure or handed down through generations of a spiritual family, is used for this reason.

Depending on how much life energy you put into the corpse, the stronger the bond and the longer the person will stay alive. There are speciel ways to add something to the body super-human strength or rapid-healing abilities, for examplebut the cost is much higher and are usually enforced by carved symbles somewhere on the body. Some spell casters in the past have used sacraifces -human and animal- to do this same ritual, but only got a zombie-like result.

Later readers (I know I have one, somwhere out there!),  
_Li_


	4. Chapter Three: Shadow's Dreaming

_**Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter**_

_**By: Li

* * *

**_

Summary: Auron is sent from her mystic home of the Flordina Plains by a miscast spell and ends up on a familiar misty bridge. After watching Team 7 of Konohagakure and their jounin instructor Copy-nin Kakashideafeat Zabuza, she chooses to reside in the village until a few days after they left. Now, with the revived Haku as her guard and traveling on a merchant caravanthey are heading toward Hidden Mist. Will the former missing-nin Haku be recognized?

A/N: This took longer since I have less computer time than usual. Next chapter will be up whenever I can _get_ to a computer with internet access.

Also, Auron will sometimes be refered to as Shurina or Kandai, the name she chose for her fake identity. As for Haku, he'd be Shinsetsu Kuhaina, and refered to as Auron's cousin (she thinks of him as one) or bodyguard.

**!IMPORTANT NOTE!** The first five chapters are about Auron and Haku's travels and some of the people they meet (hint hint). In chapter six, she finally arrives in Konoha and meets up with Naruto yet again, turning the Hidden Village upside down. She only changes minor events that I have planned, so look forward to some things old and new in later chapters.

**Warning:** hinted shojo-ai/shounen-ai (if you look _real_ close to sentence structure and peoples' actions), no yaoi or yuri (graphic); disruptive OC

**(1)** means to see the ending notes or glossary

"_Foreign language._"

**Spirits and Gods**

_Flashback is like this._

--_mind speach_--

**_

* * *

_**

_**Chapter Three: Shadow's Dreaming (on a moonless night)

* * *

**_

The caravan traveled for a week on moderately good time before arriving within a few miles of their destination. Their trip was uneventful to say the least; save a few arguments between Funno and Auron over a disgusted Haku, usually resulting in the formerly mentioned participant's moping about. One of his friends (usually Masakichi)wouldstep in to cheer him upmost of the time, reverting the fallen man to his usual, over-enthusiastic self. His behavoir reminding Auron of the Konoha jounin teacher Kakashi-san had a rivalry with, though he seldom wore spandex.

All through the journey, Aurong knew she was being watched thanks to Shunhi-kun's mind tips. The two had been in regular contact on the newly reincarnated Zabuza's FlordinaPlains life. So far he had a new name, Jousen Talance, and family -Auron's own aunt had given birth and her husband, a Horn artist, painted the babe on canvas portraits regularly.

The caravan leader, her watcher, would come to their campfire and chat for a while over some watered tea then leave to another fire side. He kept glancing at the ice eyed girl every few seconds, makingsaid girl wonder if he was attracted to her or something. The concept was dismissed, however, since Auron knew no one here could become attracted to her in that fashion; though arranged marriages were common in her homeland, many cut the engagement when they found their reicarnatedlove from their First Life#.Auron's was out there as well; she just had no intention was finding him or her**.(1)**

At the moment the man was giving a speech to the leading merchants, others checking their stocks to make sure everything was adequate and accounted for. Auron sat calmly with an unusually tense Haku: the girl sharpening the blade she'd stolen from an unsuspecting merchant andthe boy reflecting dark thoughts. Said femalejust sighed as her cousin's mood reflected in the now-uncomfortable atmosphere.

"Are you alright, Kuhai-kun?" She'd taken to shortening his pretend name in some kind of affectionate manner, causingthe young manto blush uncontrollably in embarassment when some of the braver and rowdier (drunken) men had taken her example as acceptable. Some of them still didn't look at brushes the same way again, after his '_punishment_' to them.

Haku just nodded once, rigid form not relaxing in the slightest.

Sighing again, Auron sheathed her new blade and stood, moving across the fire to sit by her guard's side. Laying a comforting had on the teen's shoulder, she leaned in and started a silent conversation with her head in his not-so-tense-anymore shoulder.

_--They won't know you. Your appearance has changed,--_ consoled Auron, sending feelings of comfort and water-energy (for relaxation) Haku's way.

It would take more than a few words to sooth the young man's worries. --_My appearance may have changed, but my chakra cannot. They will know of my bloodline as soon as they sense my power.--_ He was starting to turn this into a complex.

Auron just blinked and stared at him, unsure of what he was talking about. --_Chakra? Is that what you call the Power you and the other guards hold? An odd name, that.--_

Haku whirled in surprise, causing some caravan members to glance their way, wondering what was happening. The two were constantly silent lest spoken to directly and it seemed they held a special bond. One would know when the other was in trouble if they were separated for some reason, which had only happened twice, and if one spoke to someone, the other knew the conversation instantly, it seemed. As much as the other travelers had gotten used to it, it would still take a few more weeks time to be unsurprised or, in some cases, afraid.

_--Y-you mean, you don't use chakra?--_ inquired Haku, slightly panicking. Was she some sort of spirit, then, to borrow the energy of the elements instead of just manipulating them? Not that it really mattered; she would still be his mistress even if she wasn't quite human.

_--No. I don't need to. Chakra is for fighters, anyway. I would never wish to harm someone with my power, ever;** I** cannot even if I wanted to.--_ That made sense; her land was very peaceful and causing injury beyond accident must be taboo. He didn't press the subject; she seemed a little uneasy mentally, from her last message.

_--I'll be fine.--_ Hopefully he could go back to brooding now.

_Besides, your energy has increased and changed since I gave you some of my life essence to bring you back. We share more than a mind to mind bond, Haku; our living energies reply nowon one another,--_ Auron continued, ignoring his last comment. Outwardly they were both silently staring into the fire, faces stony, and seemingly comforting one another with just the presence of the other.

Confused, Haku asked, --_How does it effect me? Or you?--_

Auron just sighed mentally, spirit shoulders slumped as she tried to explain, though her outward self hadn't changed, --_You have a fighter's form and instincts; we share some of the same impulses, though I still do not know how to fight. You, on the other hand, will live as long as I, maybe longer, and the handling of your increased power store will have improved to near perfection. Nothing else outwardly -most of the change is mental, though not mine so much as yours, since I hardly took any of your essense.--_

"I'll leave you alone, now," she whispered, loud enough for the closer merchants to hear, as she waited for her silent explanation to sink in. It would take a while, since he had many thoughts to mull over.

"Call if you need me." He knew what she meant.

Haku just nodded as his mistress walked off, body relaxed to a point of slight meditation as he composed himself. The merchants watching them wondered what had happened between them both, none more so than the caravan leader.

Campfires away, Auron was drawn into yet another arguement about Haku by an enraged Funno. Really, did the man think she _wanted_ to mate with someone she thought of as a responsibility, and maybe family? Or was he just bored?

* * *

The next day brought bad news for a yet-again tense Mist missing-nin: they had reached the Hidden Village gates and sentries were looking the merchants over, asking for paperwork and identification. Auron saved him for yet again, this time from the cold gazes of unfamiliar jounin guards. 

When said shinobi came to the wagon being driven by their merchant friend Funno (who was all too happy to havethe younger malesitting behind him), Haku began to sweat inwardly. What if they recognized him, even with his matured face and new chakra feel? They would attack him and his so-called cousin, and the teen couldn't protect his Lady from all the hunter-nin that would chase him. What to do?

His frantic thought process was interrupted by a smiling Auron handing the grim collector two folders packed with papers, saying, "Here are the records, recommendations and travel plans. Or do you just need our Village paper work?" The chuunin sweatdrop and look uneasy, silently wondering why he always had to check the crazy, hapless ones.

Eyebrow visibly twitching in annoyance, the Mist nin handed the packed folders back to the widely grinning girl and stated in an emotionless tone, "Just your travel papers." A few of his comrades began to snicker, the others remaining impassive.

Auron's smile just widened and winked at Haku as she leaned into the wagon (the cover's down, and the one she's on has veggies!) and fished out two much thinner folders from under a pile of zucchini. Handing it to the man, she said in a terribly cheerfully sweet voice that could make anyone die from the sugar coating, "Here you are!"

Flinching slightly, said man took the papers, glanced down as he flipped through them quickly, then handed them back and walked tensely away. His still snickering friends made a few gibes before receiving a furious glare, causing one of their number to let out a startled meep at the intensity of his heated gaze. She had to wonder what kind of killers they were, or if they hadn't taken a human life yet. They lacked the shadow of silent guilt that came with surrounding your heart in cold diamond the caravan guards had beneith their alert gaze.

Relief flooded through Haku as the gates were opened andthe many wagons entered his old home, the Village of the Hidden Mist. Relaxing against the still smiling Auron, he wondered where she'd gotten convincing enough papers, seeing as she was from another continent all together.

_--Shunhi can be helpful and unconcerned, sometimes,--_ Auron answered elusively. Glancing at her from the corner of his eye, her soul-guard then remembered that she could hear his thoughts if she wanted to.

Smiling playfully at him, the girl stated comicly, "You know, I don't think that chuunin liked me very much. Was it something I said?"

The way she phrased her thoughts and manner she stated them in startled a laugh from Haku, who was soon joined by the surrounding merchants, including Funno. As much as they didn't get along most of the time (partly his unwanted fault), Auron and the enthusiastic man had one major thing in common: they were both naturally sadistic.

He felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder and turned to Auron, a small smile gracing her pale face. "Don't worry so much, cousin. I'm sure we'll find a nice place to stay here."

Haku just nodded, knowing what she meant. Hopefully, his mistress was right; and from what he had seen on their travels so far, she usually was.

Unbeknownced to them, the caravan driver watched the whole exchange as he directed the oxen of his own cart around a sharp bend. What surprised him, though, was when the girl he was so interested in looked up and smiled in his direction, a mischievious twinkle in her eye. He quickly turned away, keeping dark eyes ahead, wondering if the enigmatic girl knew he'd been keeping a close eye on her.

In Auron's own mind, she was smiling evily. Something was going to happen soon, she knew, and the girl had best enjoy the irritated screaches and shreeks of those she chose to drive insane. Next victim on her list: Nagiru Yusha, her silent watcher. This would be fun.

* * *

There were three major things Auron loved: sleep, sadistically annoying people, and surprisingly, helping those who were in need. There were also three things she hated with a passion: waking up, having to do something against her will, and seeing others treated unfairly, or made to cry by someone other than herself. The moment she entered the merchant ways -full of neverending traffic- in Hidden Mist, Auron was asleep and Haku was trying to wake her up. 

No luck there.

She was usually up and helping to make breakfast by the time Haku awoke on their recent travels, but he knew she was a light sleeperand just didn't want to get up. How was he supposed to wake the girl without earning her sadistic rath for the next few days? Auron had already made him wear a dress one time, and passersby stared at him with hearts for eyesor envy, by locking the rest of his clothes up in her trunk he didn't dare touch.

Pondering to himself who he couldconvince to wake the girl and not feel guilty about her rath falling upon them, Haku smiled a sadistic smiled scarily like Auron's own. Maybe thethatbond joined their personalitieshad mixed them unconsciously... It really didn'tmatter.

Turning to the driver now stuck in the merchant's square traffic, the guard called, "Funno-san! Can I ask you a favor?"

The man's scowl lit up into a dreamy smile instantly, hearts floating around him. Jumping to the man he'd never thought would talk to him, Funno let the smart horses drive themselves. (He was just sitting their because Haku had told him to, anyway.)

"Anything for my darling angel!" the man shouted, glomping around Haku's waist, causing watchers to stare and giggle.

Haku just sighed inwardly, looking slightly uneasy to anyone watching. He did feela bitbad for tricking the annoying clingy-person, but Funno just didn't get that he was a **guy** and not some damsel under a Forbidden Jutsu.

"Firstly, Funno-san, please stop calling me such names," the guard scolded the clinging man, sighing as said man just nodded hyperly, calling him Kuhai-sama. "Secondly, please wake my cousin up. I've tried everything I could think of and she still hasn't stirred." This last was said pleadingly, and Funno went right to the asked task.

Shaking the girl's shoulder surprisingly gently (they seemed to hate each other, after all), the man murmured something in Auron's ear that caused her to jump up in a panic. Glancing around, only to see a smirking Funno-san and sweatdropping Haku, the girl grabbed her waker by the front of his cotton shirt, glaring murderously.

"Don't. Even. Dare."

Suddenly the carriage jerked to a halt, the merchant's leader calling out before Funno could suffocate via Auron's strong grip, "We're here, minna-san. Please request a room and tommorrow our selling begins!"

Releasing the man, who crumpled to the ground whimpering in pain, his mistress glanced around curiously. Their wagon sat before a middle-class inn, looking slightly run down but homey nonetheless. Auron smiled and grabbed Haku's hand, ignoring the man laying in the vegtable piles now being rescused by his laughing friends, and dragged him toward the enterence enthusiasticly.

She seemed to have more and more mood swings lately, and often lapsed into an uncomfortable silence around other caravan members as they chatted around a campfire. Haku was worried, but didn't dare voice his concern lest she be unpleased; the girl was unprediactable that way.

"What did he say?" Haku asked curiously, wanting to distract himself from such thoughts. Auron's face imeadiately hardened as she whispered something in her guard's ear throught clenched teeth.

His jaw dropped in disbelief. How dare that idiotic, insensitive _man _even indicate such a thing? He was dead meat when Haku was trough. The_ 1001 Ways to Kill Using Needles_ context , a book of lists he'd once written, would come in handy now...

Auron, surprisingly, stopped him by a simple pull on his collar and relaxation accupreture point. Haku's mustles turned to puddy, and he would have collapsed if his mistress hadn't been holding him up. Sometimes he wondered if she even needed a guard, considering what she could do herself already.

"You can kill him later! Now we have to find a room before they're all full!" Auron scolded, helping Haku into the inn.

As much as he wouldn't like to admit, his 'cousin' was right; they need a place to sleep. Sighing to himself, Haku was surprised to find all his limbs worked according to his commands. What had she done, to make his mustles only loose for a few moments? He would never know, most likely.

Allowing himself to be dragged into the middle-class inn, Haku glanced around. No one he knew was about, apart from people he'd met resently, and hopefully it would stay that way.

* * *

_Two Days Later..._

Waking to a cold room and liquid darkness, Haku groaned. Where was he? Oh, yes. Hidden Mist, with his 'cousin' Auron, sleeping in a junky hotel room that smelled too highly of fresh flowers. And in the gloomy silence, he could tell he was alone.

Jerking awake, the guard frantacly searched for any chakra pressence and the familair mind connected to his own. Not caring that he was only dressed in a revealingly loose yukata with nothing under, Haku consontrated on the faint, murmuring presense of his mistress.

He found her on the balcany, staring out at the slumbering city from their top-floor view, the lights barely illuminating her still form. Something was off; she hadn't noticed his presense, it seemed, which had never happened before.

As he drew closer, he noticed one thing: her eyes -usually a clear bright bluethat reminded him of the stars- stared dully at him, an odd gray color like clouds before a storm, and just as unseeing of the real world. What was happening to her?

Haku heard the murumuring more clearly, the sequence of whispers that had caused his mistress's current state. His eyes widened as he recognized the type of words being repeated. He hadn't known Auron to be a prophet, yet it would explain some things...

The words were now repeated in his own mind as he stared into those captivating clear-gray eyes, now bordering on a murky molten-silver...

'_Flowes Bloom  
From Winter ice melting  
To bring Spring Rain._

_Souls mend  
as Hearts Shatter_  
_In neverending seguence._'

What was she predicting? he wondered, snapping out of his daze as a mist thickened between their mind link. It was Auron's duing, he was sure, to protect him from knowing a future he might not like.

_But what had the warning went?_

In the diming light, Haku saw the girl's eyes change back to their normal near-transpartment blue and smile grimly, lips tight, as she stared out at the city below. Glancing at the waiting guard from the corner of her eye, a faint flicker of murky-silver in those clear gem-like orbs startled him. Was she Seeing again?

Her mind was closed to him, but not conversation.

"Wh-what was that, Airan-sama?" he asked, voice shacking as much as he willed it not to.

She just smiled wryly, chuckling dryly under her breathe. "I have the blood of my home's top three Clans running strong through my veins, Haku-kun. They have quaities others don't; what you call bloodlines, right? You can understand, since yours is... well... a little similair.

"You see, instead of controling one Element, mine allows me to master a skill or inhance something I already know. I can't do Jutsus; my chakra capability is almost nonexistent, if you can tell. I know Spells, and can See the Future when I wish, and sometimes when I don't. Like now."

Sighing out right, the girl glanced at him with wise eyes she shouldn't have. This was not the sadisticly fun girl he'd come to know, but someone that reminded him of his dead mother, a person who carried much knowledge within them only to let it go to waiste and keep her true self secret from the rest of the world.

_Like him..._

Or what would have been his old self. Zabuza, his precous person, had cared for and changed him not only into a so-called tool, but into a teen who consideredthe mana mentor and father-figure who'd taught him how to love again. After he'd lost his parents... he'd stopped feeling for so long... What had caused his new mistress's sorrow; the prize of her wisdom?

But this one, this girl who reminded him of dead family, of when he'd been happy for the first time, was not letting the knowlege she'd gained rot away in the back of her mind while she lived a peaceful life. In fact, she was kind enough to share it with him, one who she hardly knew...

Her voice continued to talk, and he left obliged to listen, "My powers are needed here, as there are many others like me where I come from. In blood, that is." She smiled sadly, a deep longing for something he couldn't understand shadowing her eyes a clearer crystaline. In was vaguely... frightening, to see such emotion on a face so young.

Wasn't she supposed to be spared the grief many outcast children in the Ninja Countries lived through, growing up in a perfectly peaceful place with no conflict? Or had something happened, even there, that even the Gods could not prevent? (He knew of Flordina's History from Auron's conversations.)

The girl just sighed and forced a happy smile for the worried boy. "Get some more sleep, Haku-kun; we'll be leaving here sooner than expected." Her guard stared questioningly. "The caravan driver annouced so while you were asleep here. I listened into their meeting, anyway."

Gesturing to the glass doors behind her, Auron patted Haku on the shoulder and whispered a "Goodnight." Yawning sleepily, the boy did as told until he realized something that made him stop just a step into the room.

"What about you, Airan-sama?" she winced at the formality, then just waved his question off.

"Not like I'll get much restful sleep, with all these visions and the dead around. I'll be fine in the morning; no need to worry." He was dimissed.

Not entirely convinced, Haku sent one last glance her way before disappearing into the bedroom they should be sharing, knowing he had to obey her order.

Curling up on the comfy matress, something he hadn't had in a long time, Haku fell into slumber musing Auron's past adventures in a far away land, thanking the Gods silently that they were leaving Hidden Mist earlier than planned.

Watching above him, Shunhi just smiled and went to join the restless girl, knowing she wanted to see him for something.

* * *

((Scene Added 6/12/05)) 

Auron sighed as she stared out at the city, something of a habit she'd developed after two vage nights of restlessness, and turned to the waiting God floating before her. She'd called Shunhi, not just for formality, but for understanding company. As much as Haku had become an asset to her, he wasn't ready to understand her full selfjust yet.

Smiling wryly up at the worried God, who just sighed at her expression, the girl stated tiredly, "Thank you for coming, Shunhi-kun."

Her shinigami friend found a resting place on the balcony's reil beside her, trapping his long black robes over the edge, reaching out a perfect hand to pat her shoulder. "**It's begun, then?**" he asked warily, speaking of the prophecies of her Hero and chosen Lord Kitsubi.

"It has," Auron replied with a whiskful grin. "I've seen him a second time. Wish it had been the first, then..."

Shunhi's face hardened as he resisted the erge to smack her atop the head. Sometimes she could just be so negititive and depressing... "**You can't changed what happened**." His Mortal friend glanced up at him, a pained expression behind her hardened eyes. "**Airan-sama, if we, the Gods that watch over Flordina, could not change the... even in the slightest, there was nothing you could do**."

His words were meant to be a comfort, but only managed to confirm a part of the guilty hurt she unconsciously knew. If she would allow herself to cry, the moment his words sunk in Auron would've been bauling in the Death God's arms. The problem is she didn't; the girl just smiled sadly, before pushing the pain away and staring out at the midnight lights of Hidden Mist.

"**I...**" There was nothing else to say.

The Heiress glanced at the seemingly young man staring at her with such a troubled expression, only to smile and state, "It's alright, Shunhi-sama," _she never uses -sama..._, "I'll get over it."

Said god flinched visibly, hating to hear such things from his favorite Mortal. She hid her true emotions well from most behind guarded eyes now closed as she smiled, but to someone who'd known her soul for countless lifetimes passsed, nothing could be veiled from his now-searching dark orbs. If only she wasn't so reclusive. After what happened with ... (daren't even think the name of the person who'd caused her so much pain) _that boy_, Auron just needed someone to open up to.

_Someone to trust._

"**Auron,**" the shinigami whispered, leaning toward his human ward.

"Hmmm?" said girl murmured, glancing back at him with a blank expression.

"**We won't let it happen again.**" Auron eyes widened as her Immortal comrade just smiled, tucking a stray hair behind her ear as an attentively affectionate brother might have. "**It will not happen again.**" His tone was final, leaving no arugement room for the girl's likely protests.

Instead Auron only smiled slightly, the usual glint back in her clear ice eyes, as she leaned her head on Shunhi's slim chest and sighed. "I know, Shunhi of the Otherworld. I know." She used his informal title as she sometimes did with Athne as the Lady of Rememberence.

Leaning into her God friend, his arms drapping loosely around her in an embrace she so needed, Auron fell asleep in Shunhi's arms. Gazing up at the gray cloudy sky as it began to rain, said shinigami thought back to the girl's family predictions. He sighed; the storm had yet to come as the rain pounded down around the embracing duo.

It all began, and he hoped her meddling changed what was needed.

* * *

**_Owari Chapter Three_**

* * *

E/N: Three done, many to go! I hope you enjoyed it, next update whenever! A little shorter than usual, though that's alright, ne? It was kinda rushed... 

Chapter Four: (once in a) Blue Moon (Haku and Auron leave the Hidden Mist, only to get seperated from the caravan and be attack by bandits! What to do?)

**1- ...Flordina Love Consept...**

The Flordinese beleive in love of all kinds, as long as the person is happy and peaceful with no real conflict. If a match doesn't work, they choise someone more compadable or closer in feeling to the person being chosen for. They also do not care if two of the same sex are in love and welcome the couple with open arms. It is common for servents to help their masters in the teachings of love, or the masters to teach the servents. It doesn't matter to them (or me, for that matter) and it's fairly common. There are enough same-sex couples to make pleanty of children, though.

_Li_


	5. Chapter Four: Blue Moon

_**Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter**_

_**By: Li

* * *

**_

Summary: Auron was sent from a mystic land across the sea by a spell cast wrong, ending up on a misty bridge in the Water country. After reviving the familiar Haku and casting him as herguard, they join a caravan heading toward Hidden Mist Village. Now, after leaving Haku's old home early and without further complications, the caravan moves on.

A/N: Sorry to be so late, but the computer I found on the 17th was having trouble connecting to the internet, so..

**!IMPORTANT NOTE!** The first five chapters are about Auron and Haku's travels and some of the people they meet (hinthint). In chapter six, she finally arrives in Konoha and meets up with Naruto yet again, turning the Hidden Village upside down. She only changes minor events that I have planned, so look forward to some things old and new in later chapters.

**Warning:** hinted shojo-ai/shounen-ai (if you look _real_ close to sentence structure and peoples' actions), no yaoi or yuri (graphic); disruptive OC; **Blood **and fighting in this chapter.

**(1)** means to see the ending notes or glossary

"_Foreign language._"

**Spirits and Gods**

_Flashback is like this._

--_mind speach_--

****

* * *

_**Chapter Four: (once in a) Blue Moon

* * *

**_

Auron sat humming in the back of Funno's wagon, now empty of the vegetables that were once taking up space, jotting down random sentences in a worn leather notebook no one but herself had ever read. It had become a habit in her youth: that whenever bored in idle classes with droning teachers, she would take out a piece of paper and begin to write. And since she'd Spelled the bound book for unlimited pages, she never had to worry about disorder of the sort.

Two people watched her: one from afar, the other peering questioningly at his mistress, sitting across the wagon from her. The first kept turning, and had placed mirrors pointing in her direction, the secondwatching with botheyes and mind hismistress, who was such an enigma to the former. Auron wrote on, seemingly oblivious.

"Something the matter, Kuhai-kun?" the latter's mistress asked, using his shortened cover name.

"Nothing, nothing," was the guard's reply. He just wanted to know what she wrote, was all.

Auron glanced up for a moment, then to the side and directly in the caravan driver's mirrors. They both watched her intently, and the girl wondered why the older male had any interest in her at all. Her God friends had found nothing bad on the man, though he was an information spy for her Lord Kitsubi's home village of Konohagakure. Admirable, since he had limited fighting knowledge and his chosen profession was riskyat best. Then again, who would suspect the driver of a wagon train to not be a double crosser?

"You sure?" she asked just for conversation's sake.

"Yes, Shiruna-san. Just one thing, though. Will you tell me what you're writing?" he cautiously voiced his question. She'd been moody since he'd discovered her visions on the gloomy night two days ago. You could never tell how she'd react to a simple question.

A moment of uneasy silence on Funno's (who was driving and listening in on their talk) and Haku's parts, then Auron smiled. "Nope," it was simply put, filled with fake cheerfulness. The wagon's driver tuned them out as silence resumed.

_--What's bothering you, Airan-sama?--_ Haku asked telepathically. He was worried, for both their sakes.

A silence, then, --_Something will happen; we will meet those who will help us after an unknown tragedy.--_ Then the link was cut as Auron once again busied herself in the leather book and Haku was left to his thoughts.

The caravan driver, watching asthey stared into each other's eyes for a moment, then embarrassingly (it seemed to him) downcast their gazes. It seemed to him there was much more to their relationship then just being cousins. If his calculations were correct, he nodded to himself:

It was simple. They were lovers.

If Funno knew what his bosswas thinking, he would'vehad a panic attack anddenied it for them, then challenged Auron to another battle of the wills. But at the moment, he was lost in thoughts of Haku as a girl and himself skipping down flower plains and going on romantic dates, outward attention on controlling his cattle. That was the one thing he was good at: when fantasizing, he did a better job at everything than when conscious of the outside world.

Auron just sighed and continued to write, having heardboth their thoughts loud and clear. It was none of her concern what was thought of herself and her guard. She really couldn't care less. Then again, no one was that stupid in the Flordina Plains to think such things without a mind shield up. Really, didn't these people fear a nin would enter their mind at some time or another and take control?

Staring at the road once more, Auron knew something was coming. She just hoped it wasn't too serious…

Time seemed to pass so slowly, here.

At lunch break, the caravan leader announced, "We will be splitting up on the next train of road. It's too small for all the wagons to go one after another, and would take much longer to reach our destination." He handed out maps of the area; trails marketed in different colors depending on which section you were in.

For example: Funno's party, color green, forest roadway.

Auron sighed. Just what she needed, more complications. As if the reoccurring visions weren't enough; she didn't even feel all that safe with just Funno and a few of his friends. Atleast Haku was there, though…

Haku glanced at his mistress questioningly. He had a bad feeling about this, and knew Auron did too. But he couldn't protest openly; what would he say? '_I have a bad feeling. And no, it's not the dried jerky acting up._'? Yeah, and all the men would call him a sissy behind his back again.

He sighed in resignation. There was nothing he could do; they were already off.

* * *

Funno drove the wooden wagon down the rickety dirt road, the wheels jolting its passengers every small flaw in the path. How they and another wagon had gotten separated from the group and ended up here was a mystery to them all, though Auron had a nagging suspicion the something she predicted would happen soon. 

It was then the shadows decided to announce their presence.

There were five of them, all shaggy looking and in need of a bath and maybe lawn mower for all their hair on head as well as body. Their clothes were patchwork rags covered in self-made leather vests, most likely for protection against minor cuts and bruises. Their stench was so terrible the oxen bucked, overturning the wagons in their desperate atempts get away from the men who smelled worse than a thousand skunks and thirty year old gym socks.

They never made it past the road's bend.

Out stepped a well-build man lugging a huge sword as if it weighed not a thing, butchering the cattle in one mighty swing. Blood and chunks of flesh flew everywhere, and the man just smiled cruelly. All stared in fear and awe, terrified but still impressed but the man's display of power.

Auron and Haku didn't bat an eyelash. '_Show off,_' they thought in union.

Funno wondered if they all would die by the man's sword, as his prized drivers had.

"What have we here, fellows? Two girls and pathetic excuses for men?" The man laughed, and his lackey's joined in.

Haku's eyebrow twitched but he didn't say anything. Only on Auron's command would he attack unless either of them was harmed in anyway. For all he knew, the bandits would take their goods and leave them to their own devises.

Airan stared coldly, then sighed, expression flat and bored as if nothing major had happened. Her premonition had come true, now where were those helpful people to come save them? She knew Haku could take the men no problem, but with the deadweights around (she included herself, surprisingly), they would only get in the ex-assasain's way.

Airan yawned, which caught the leader's attention.

He smirked, getting as close as he dared to her face. For some reason, his honed instincts told him to tread carefully around this defenseless girl, and he never mistrusted his excellent sense.

"Do you find me boring, little girl? Should I get dollies and put on a show for you instead? I'll have you know I am Kushigi Hitai, former chuunin of Hidden Mist and A-class missing nin." He smiled to himself, still boasting. Ah, it felt good to capture hostages and get ransom on them. The girls he now faced seemed from well-off families; he bet they'd fetch a good enough price.

"Well, yes, I do. And dolls are not my style, thank you. I prefer books, novels, and action movies."She nodded slightly to Haku as an implication, sending mental thoughts and an order to kill.

Shinsetsu Kuhaina just smiled knowingly.

Hitai laughed, and his fellow thugs joined in again. "Action movies, huh? I'll give you act-" his voice gurgled as he trailed off, falling over dead were the other '_girl_' had once lay. Needles punctured three vital points: heart, neck, and lungs.

Haku was nowhere to be seen.

The bandits glanced around nervously, not sure what to do. Their leader had fallen so easily. Who was that beautiful girl, now known as a deadly shinobi?

They settled for taking hostages, hold a knife to some life organ that would mean instant death if punctured. Haku didn't dare attack for fear a blade might shift as a dead body fell. It became silent, still, with Auron on the ground, watching.

No one had dared near her, seeing as Hitai's deceased body was right beside her.

What broke the silence and startled the bandit's into action was a crow cawing and takingflight from the trees. The men released their hostages, knives at the ready.

Funno wasn't so lucky.

As he captor dropped him to face the overhead noise, he also dropped his knife. Said blade plumaged into the annoying man's gut. Blood dripped out as well as guts, but he uttered not a sound. The bandits looked at their comrade's handy work, and would have congratulated him if the one they were searching for hadn't raced past them and to his once-suitor's side.

It was too late. Funno, the semi-annoying man that had once been a small part of their lives, was dead.

Auron saw his soul being taken away by a smiling Shunhi that waved, eyes apologetic.

Back in reality, Haku had been captured as well as the other caravan members now mourning their deceased friend. Auron was still protected by the dead body of a fallen leader beside her. She had all the luck some would say, yet she herself didn't think so.

What could she do? Airan asked herself. What else could she do than depend on Haku?

Absolutely nothing, was the unspoken answer. Nothing.

Auron wished she could cry.

* * *

_Moments later, as several things happened..._

"You killed him... my new friends..." The crouching girl's voice trailed off, softly dangerous. She leaned over the deceased Funno's body, eyes covered in shadow.

The bandit cackled insanely, thinking the girl no more dangerous than the man she knelt over. "Yeah, so? He deserved it, for getting in our way. What, ya gunna do somethin' 'bout it? Send your beauty here to do your dirty work?" His fellows laughed along with them, unaware that their words only shortened the girl's already snapping thread of mind.

He held Haku up in a hostage possession, crooked knife to throat, and pressed the blade closer to his chest. Her guard began to cough up blood, staining the bandit's sleeve, causing the man to smile more. That was the last straw for Auron, though.

"You killed them... _You hurt him... **You will pay!**_" Her voice turned from human quiet to dangerous and angry god within three words spoken. The stranger's eyes widened, but they had no time to act.

Fear froze them all as Auron stared with blood red eyes more demonic than any they'd ever seen. She was now anger Sukien, the one who stored all the dangerous emotions, and turned them into rage, hate, and killing intent.

"**_Soul redemption, ha! ... Your life has been forfeit; it belongs to me now... Go to your rightful place!_**" The shouted order was followed by strong wind, knocking their souls from their bodies. Only the one holding Haku was protected, and only because he was holding her friend.

Sukien-rage growled deeply, crouching as a cat might, glaring red eyes full of so much hate, pain, and anger it froze the bandit in place. A wet spot appeared near his crotch area, and the demon-like Airan persona smirked.

"Di-dunt come eh-ny clu-closer, ya 'ere? Or di-dee gal gets it!" the bandit threatened through a frightened stammer, pressing the crooked knife to Haku's throat tighter. The sharp but rusty blade drew blood, and her guard stared blankly at Sukien. There was an underlying fear, but acceptance to his fate –dieing to protect his mistress and new precious person—held strong above all else.

Sukien/Airan stopped her advance, still growling and glaring. For all it's rage and urge to kill and torcher all things around, the conscious mind's priorities were still there, directing her movements and who she let die. Haku was, to Auron, soul-family and her first close friend in a long while, which to Sukien equaled someone to protect.

The bandit smirked, thinking he had tamed the girl-turned-beast to anything he wished. "Come closer." He drawled, leering at the girl.

Sukien did. When close enough –a few feet away—she took her chance.

Howling loudly, an inhuman sound that startled all humans but told the animals only that something was getting revenge for a terrible wrong, the red-eyed girl jumped the terrified bandit. Haku's body landed softly on a pile of leaves while his enraged mistress snapped the thug's left arm like a twig. Ironic what power snapping could give you, sometimes.

The man yelled in pain, as if he had never experienced what he usually dealt. Auron just smiled, landing heavily meters away from Haku.

Gasping for breath, Sukien's red eyes sparkled in satisfaction, unwilling to become dormant again until the job she had been called out for was done. But after a break to regain enough momentum power to snap the offending man's neck…

The unnamed bandit stared at her, eyes filled with unkept rage, as he forgot his own pain and settled on the task of causing her as much as he could. Swinging his katana in an overhead killing blow, he ran at the kneeling Sukien shouting a battle cry.

Haku watched, willing his body to move as Auron created a barrier. It would be too late. He ran.

And intercepting the blow saved his mistress some unwarranted pain.

Seeing her friend fall, Sukien was filled with unrelinquishable rage once again. Charging at the shocked man, she gave him a death so painful and indescribable that it cannot be done justice with its dealt pain in real words.

She sucked out his soul and left his still living body for the forest foke she now owed for disturbing their rest.

Sukien curled up a little ways away from the dead bodies, and slept peacefully as Auron's conscious began to come back.

* * *

Auron awoke from her Sukien-influenced rage drained of vital energy and covered in fresh blood not her own. The thick red liquid stained her white outfit where dirt and mud did not, making it seem as if wood colors were it's natural dye. 

The girl stared at her trembling hands, not knowing what to do. She had killed again; not really her conscious mind, but a part of her nonetheless, had done this. Peace was all she knew, and even the deaths and maiming in books didn't seem real, let alone her knew adventures in Kitsubi-sama's country.

She thought it was a dream-like reality, but now she knew it wasn't. Yuki would come… soon… and she had to stop him! Stop him from corrupting anymore of the necessary people in her path to right what shouldn't happen. Next, she knew, it would be more than just your average thugs and chuunin drop out. Uzumaki Naruto of Hidden Leaf, the one to become her Lord in his past-adult days, had enemies waiting just around the corner. Waiting for her, as well as him, now.

Struggling to stand on shaky legs, Auron took two steps before falling to the ground. Alright, then walking was a bad idea. How about crawling, then?

Gripping the ground in tight fists, gaining handfuls of dirt in the process, the Thrice Heiress pulled her knees to her stomach and began to move as an injured animal would. Stretch out the upper body, then pull in legs behind her as best she could. Auron continued until she reached the still body of Haku.

Eyes hardening, preventing the tears that wished to fall, the guard's ward fell onto his blood stained chest. A huge gash ran across its length, a token of protecting her from the idiot bandit's attack.

'_No, no! I refuse to let you die again, Haku-kun! You will live!_' she shouted silently to him. He didn't respond in any way, shape, or form.

Growling deep in her throat, Auron's body filled with unexpected energy. Power born of desperation and refusal to give up fueled her healing ability, maximizing its potential.

Usually it would take her ten minutes to stop all the bleeding and begin clotting the dripping gash, but as her hands glowed silvery with spiritual energy, it only took the blink of an eye. His face was still pale, and she knew the problem her knowledge wasn't able to fix.

He had lost too much blood.

It stained his clothes, it darkened his pale skin, and it would have discust anyone but a trained professional to see. Auron wasn't trained to withstand the sight, but did so anyway. She looked worse then him, as it was. While he was unconscious, she was suffering from silent hysterics and too much mental strain, but she was determined to handle it all.

For her sake as well as her friend's.

What remained of the adrenaline that had fueled her powers now helped her body stand, cradling the other teen's body in her shaky arms. Somehow -her mind was too foggy to know exactly how- Haku was riding her piggyback and she was heading down the road, the opposite way she'd come.

Shunhi and her God friends watched, but she was unaware of their silent attention. This was a trial none of them could help her with, no matter how much they wished to. It showed the Council of Gods and Mortals if she was ready for the task of taking part in a future legend's life, and shaping it to it's fullest potential.

There was one thing her Immortal brethren could do, though. They buried the bodies and took the souls to their rightful places.

Auron had decided to take Naruto, Kakashi, and all of Konoha's fireyexamples to heart: she would never leave a fellow comrade behind. It would be her new life way.

**...Owari Chapter Four: (once in a) Blue Moon**...

* * *

A/N: How did you like it? Interesting? And I now have five reviews! Thank you for reviewing every chapter, M –san! Sorry for such a sort chapter, too! The next will be way longer! 

Next Chapter: Innocent Play (in life unjust) (Auron carries Haku to a Medic nin's fireside, passing out in the process. Who are these two young women so skilled in healing? And why do they have a pig?) (Guess who they are –sing-song voice--)

Laters, all!  
_Li_


	6. Chapter Five: Innocent Play

**_Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter _**

**_By: Li_**

Summary: Auron was sent from a mystic land across the sea by a spell cast wrong, ending up on a misty bridge in the Water country. After leaving Hidden Mist with the rest of her traveling caravan, Auron and her new friends get attacked by bandits! Now, a seriously injured Haku is being carried by an exhausted Auron toward the nearest village…

A/N: **7/4/05** Edited and up.

**(1)** means to see the ending notes or glossary

"_Foreign language._"

**Spirits and Gods**

_Flashback is like this._

--_mind speach_--

* * *

**_Chapter Five: Innocent Play (in life unjust)

* * *

_**

"Don't worry, Haku; I won't let you die. Just hang on…," murmured Auron to the unconscious boy in her arms. The spell-trained girl wanted to heal his wound completely, not just stop the outer and most serious inner bleeding. She could have given him her blood --since they were connected his body would accept it-- but even the sharpest of the bandit's knives refused to puncture her cement-like skin.

_'Stupid protection spells. For my own good,she said. More like annoying as hell, they are,_' she mind-muttered, then began whispering reassurances to her comrade's unmoving body yet again. Even if he wouldn't die because of their bond, his body would still go into a coma-like state until he was physically and mentally healed.

Stumbling over a loose rock, Auron leaned against a nearby tree for support, not loosening her hold on Haku's body for even a second. She _would _save him; she _had _to. He deserved this second chance at life more than anyone else she knew.

A glimmer of flickering firelight in the distance caught her attention. Travelers, maybe? One of them might be able help Haku…

Taking a chance, she headed in the light's direction, determined to get there no matter the caused to her already exhausted body. The Flordinese had tougher bones and muscles than ordinary humans; she could survive a little overexertion.

The campfire was a ways away, and Auron almost didn't make it. Her pushing took a toll on her body, too; she could no longer stand, let alone walk!

Before collapsing, Auron made sure to lay Haku gently down in a pile of conveniently placed leaves, falling face first to the feet of a shocked dark haired woman. She stared at Auron, gaping, not able to form a complete sentence.

Coughing slightly, only able to lift her head a little bit, Auron murmured, "Please… help him…" Then passed out from exhaustion.

The woman addressed, Shizune, stared dumbfounded at the unconscious duo. Tsunade-sama was a few miles down the street, gamblingat a roadside joint she didn't have a debt at – yet. She'd left the dark haired woman to make a rough camp; everything packed up in case they had to run from debt collectors yet again.

Now, two injured strangers had stumbled upon her and TonTon (the pig) – one carrying the other what seemed like quite a far walk --, requesting help. As a trained medic ninja, she was required to help injured comrades in need, and seeing as the young girl had carried her friend toward the nearest town most likely to help, Shizune decided to adopt them as patients.

Kneeling beside the injured boy, she noticed bandaged wounds unstained with fresh blood, though he was clearly pale from profuse bloodloss. The dark headed woman wondered what had happened, but pushed her musings to the back of her mind. These young patients of hers needed her undivided attention more than anything else at the moment.

The girl began to stir -- conscious enough to mumble and roll herself from stomach to back as Shizune checked her comrade over. It wasn't _really_ Auron, more like the polite Sukien, as her conscious mind was just too tired…

The dark haired woman glanced at Airan, then turned back to her current patient. It was odd for someone with no nin or combat training to awaken after collapsing from exhaustion so quickly, but the medic specialist had more important things to worry about. Like what was wrong with the boy.

Popping a blood-replenishing pill into Haku's mouth and making him swallow, Shizune sighed. There wasn't much more she could do, with their limited supplies. She'd have to wait for Tsunade-sama to return.

Dreading her mistress's undetermined arrival, Shizune did what she could for the boy.

* * *

A stone drunk woman in her twenties, bright yellow hair in pigtails and huge breasts bouncing, ran full speed away from the sparkling lights of a moderately sized tent-city. Men in suits and ties gave chase, all shouting about money she owed them from various places. 

The Sucker had struck again.

Slug Sennin Tsunade of Konohagakure, the notorious woman who would fall for any bet or gamble, now raced towards her camp, hoping Shizune-chan was ready to up and leave at a moment's notice. But as the woman drew closer, she slowed, sensing something was off. Three figures lay ahead: two on mats and the other leaning over each in turn.

Had Shizune found patients?

Instantly sobered, she held a shushing finger up to the money collectors now drawing to an abrupt halt beside her. Clever as she was, the gambling sennin made a convincing liar right off the bat. If those were patients, then there would be blood…

"Would you please be quiet? My assistant is tending to our injured friends." They stared at her questioningly, nervous nonetheless. They'd seen her jump through a stonewall unscathed; if this was a trick to confuse them and attack, their lives were over.

Tsunade sighed, still in the act. Thank goodness she sobered quickly when it really counted. "My assistant and I are traveling medics. I only came to gamble to get more money for supplies and their medicine; we're almost out."

"Medicine?" one asked skeptically, not buying the act all the way through.

Tsunade looked remorseful. "To keep them from dying."

"Their wounds?" the same man asked, feeling a little bit guilty for asking such a thing, but still suspicious of the con-woman's lies.

Tsunade used a simple jutsu, without hand seals, to see what Shizune was doing. The patient to her right was beautiful, and could have passed for a girl if his flat chest wasn't bandaged in plain view. The one to her friend's right was another story: she looked totally exhausted and was covered in blood.

The sennin shuddered and began to shake from the sight of her phobia, but to the collectors it seemed as if she was reliving the horrid scene that had caused her supposed friends' wounds. A few glared at their comrade, who had the decency to look ashamed.

Someone patted her shoulder, jolting Tsunade from her bloody memories of lost loved ones. "We'll let you go for now. There's a hospital up ahead and to the right; can't miss it. Treat your friends there, and send us the money when you have it," a male voice stated, pointing in the town's direction.

"Alright…" There was nothing to say. Had her lie really worked?

"Good. We'll be waiting for that money." The collectors walked back towards the tent-city, seeing no reason to hurry, as they talked amongst themselves. Tsunade just stared.

It was unbelievable! Someone had believed her lying! The woman ran towards her camp, bent on telling Shizune.

* * *

Tsunade arrived at the mini-medic camp; Shizune-chan was tending the boy's wounds, leaving the girl to her own devises. At the moment, said girl was stripping off her blood drenched outer clothes to reveal untouched inner ones shining white even in the dead of night. 

Her near-transparent blue orbs locked with the slug sennin's, and the stranger grinned, her smile not meeting those sad eyes. They weren't the lonely kind of sad that those who had been through too much carried, but a newborn sadness caused by a sudden realization.

Who was she, to have such eyes?

The medic nin sensed no hostility or advanced chakra from her, so those eyes couldn't be a nin bloodline limit. Genetic mutation? Could be.

Lost in thoughts of the strange teen's appearance, Tsunade almost didn't hear her voice. "Hello, madam. Are you the other to this campsite?" The girl was polite even drained as she was. She had to be exhausted beyond belief, so why was she still conscious?

"Yeah. Who're you?" No time for pleasantries; the girl could be a threat or spy from the Sandaime to get his old student to come back to Konoha. No way she would; that place was cursed for her.

The girl just laughed, a tired undertone though it was a happy wound. "Kandai Shurina of the Snow Country, respected elder. The one injured is my cousin, Shinsetsu Kuhaina. We were part of a caravan train and got separated, then attacked by bandits…" The girl shivered from what Tsunade thought was a traumatizing experience. She was half right, as it was.

Auron had remembered what she could become; the terrible thing the one called Yuki was responsible for. Killing again hadn't helped rest her conscious, either.

Tsunade nodded, wondering why two from a country of constant blizzards were doing in the Water country. She didn't ask, just assessed the situation and the girl's injuries.

Stare, blink, and blink again in disbelief. There were none.

Not a scratch, not a bruise, just energy exhaustion and mental stress. The girl wasn't a ninja, so why was she unscathed? That was a question to ask another time, preferably in daylight.

Yawning, Tsunade was continually ignored by the busy Shizune now treating Kuhaina's blood loss once again. He was still terribly pale; he needed either a transfer or more pills.

Pulling a blood-relinquishing pill from a pouch usually full of money to gamble with, Tsunade turned to hand it to her assistant, whom already had one popped into their patient's mouth. Satisfied that the younger woman could take care of the boy on her own, the female sennin turned to her bedroll beside Shurina.

The girl stared at the pill curiously, obviously wanting to look at it closer. Tsunade sighed and handed the medicine over.

Auron caught it and began studying the design and ingredients expertly. The older female wasn't paying her any mind, just settling into her sleeping bag.

"This won't work on Kuhai-kun, I'm afraid," the girl announced, causing Tsunade to jerk up and stare at her in shock. Auron just chuckled, still serious. "He has a system resistance to the two main ingredience; he needs a transfusion of my blood."

"Your blood?" Tsunade repeated questioningly, still shocked that a girl so seemingly young would even know how to look for the pill's condense. She wasn't even a trained ninja!

"Yes, mine. We have the same kind of blood; we _are_ cousins, after all. I just need something… extremely sharp. My skin is quite resistant to anything other. A side effect of being Kuhai-kun's guinea pig for new jutsus, I'm afraid." She smiled.

"Your cousin… is he--?"

"A shinobi? Quite. Trained more in medicine than fighting, though. He's traveling with me as a guard, or atleast that's what he himself said. Now, do you have anything infused with chakra? Like a scalpel, for example?" Auron stared at her wrist, knowing she would feel the pain Haku did if she gave him blood.

Tsunade's hands began to glow; she would use the chakra scalpel.

Auron nodded, letting Sukien take control again. Her other half would have a better time dealing with the pain soon to come than her own mind, at the moment.

Airan held out her arm, expression unreadable, and nodded sharply once. Tsunade, face stone and deep down a little confuse, pulled the loose clothe of the donor's second outer layer of silken white upper garments, the female sennin punctured a thin line along her wrist's blood web.

Hissing inwardly at the slight --unwelcome-- pain, Haku's mistress smiled despite it all. If she could help him, she would.

And she did, in more ways than one.

Her blood was lased with memories, you see, and when transfused, he could relive their time together from her point of view. It was helpful, informative -- and gave him the blackmail material he needed, seeing some of Auron's inner thoughts. He knew his mistress was just glad to help, and he was silently greatful.

* * *

Haku's health steadily improved, though the only woke to the conscious world when Auron called him to drink or eat. His injuries healed neatly, though it would be a few weeks until his full recovery. Tsunade and Shizune were kind enough to let the two strangers stay at their campsite, then travel with them. 

For the next two weeks, Auron kept a look out for any sign of the traveling caravan as the three females carried the lone male from village to town. Tsunade took it upon herself to cheer the depressing girl up by taking Airan under her wing. The first time, Shizune was tending Haku while her mistress snuck off with the uncertain form of Auron behind her…

((No more flashbacks… The italics are icky!))

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Tsunade-san?"

A wary-looking light brown haired girl stood behind her much larger, blonde friend. The street was crowded with various townsfolk and brightly dressed travelers, all talking amongst themselves and admiring the merchant street's window displays.

Shizune had been tending to Haku in their hostel room (paid for with borrowed money from Auron, of course) when the foreign girl's new mentor decided to introduce her new student to the joys of an adult's world. Gambling and sake, that is.

Tsunade had led Airan away from the inn at a moderately fast pace –though the girl had kept up with some difficulty—and to the street Game Way intercepted a few steps ahead of where they now stood: Lilac Drive. (All the streets save Game Way and Main Road were named for flowers or herbs common to the area in Mizutaka Town, named for the founder's Clan.)

"Yes, yes, I'm sure. Now hurry up!" the slug sennin snapped impatiently at the girl behind her, weaving through the masses of people easily. A few men turned to stare, the rest openly drooling or gaping, but she all but ignored them.

Auron hurried in her wake.

Walking onto Game Way as a few groups near her own age parted, Auron gasped. She'd seen nothing like this before; the neon signs, scantly clad girls calling to passing men, and sweet yet musty unknown scent that greeted her amazed the poor girl. Only for a moment, though.

She stalked down the crowded street, ignoring the few second glances she earned from males and females alike, finally locating her wayward older friend drooling before a highly lit window. Standing by the sennin, Auron glanced in. Stools and tables, shadowy people dressed in black, a smoky atmosphere; definitely one of the bars the girl had read about.

Tsunade glanced at the white-clad girl from the corner of her eye, than grabbed the younger female's unbandaged wrist and dragged her inside the establishment.

Several not-too-drunk tenants glanced up and leered at the scantly clad woman and her teenage companions, a few shouting jabs that would make most women blush. The blonde just ignored them, for once keeping her temper in check, as the brunette just sighed. Why did most men here insist upon being so rude to the opposite sex?

The bartender glanced up from where he dried glasses with a warn clothe, the burly man immediately recognizing the woman as The Sucker. Sweating a little, he leaned a tattooed elbow on the bar counter, eyeing the females now sitting on high stools before him. One glanced warily around the room whilst the other smiled sweetly at him.

"Two bottles of sake, bartender." The blonde stared hungrily at the green-tinted bottles decorated with the Sakurai Clan's brewing emblem, obviously wanting both his current stash.

"And an Orange Rush, if you please." Politeness was unheard of in a bar of this type.

The huge man glanced quickly at her, startled that this teen –seemingly underage—wanted the house special. There was not sign for it, just the cost of a glass or bottle, so how did she know about it?

Tsunade glanced at the girl; had she misjudged the girl for an innocent?

Auron continued to glance around, wincing when accidentally catching another's' eye. She shuttered as the gloomy air moved when someone inhaled a cigarette, then exhaled the toxic smoke.

The older sweatdropped. Definitely not.

"Your Orange Rush and sake, ma'ams," stated the bartender, setting two small glasses and a large one filled to the brim with creamy pink liquid before his two female customers.

"Thanks," the nervous Auron stated with a half smile, sipping her drink. Tsunade took a swig of the sake bottle, not even bothering with a cup. Their fellow bar mates either stared or ignored them completely, though most gazed in awe at the twenty-something pigtailed girl who would hold her drink quite well.

The Orange Rush was strong, Auron noted, a faint blush tinting her slightly-pales cheeks pink. Her Flordinese digestive system, on the other hand, only aloud her body to feel the buzz for a few minutes at most. One good thing about that: Airan could consume a whole bar of beer (if her bladder aloud) without becoming a stone drunk.

Tsunade, in her drunken haze, pored her student of life an overflowing glass of sake, who downed it and smirked. The bartender just stared; both could hold their drinks, though the younger seemed to have a much easier time doing so.

"More sake here!" shouted Tsunade, the former pink tint to her cheeks now bright red. The woman glanced over at her friend, and even through her drunken haze, stared in wonder. Auron was casually sipping a small dish of rice wine, not the least bit tipsy in any way. Sure, the girl had had a little less than she herself, but someone so young and inexperienced should have passed out my now.

The barkeeper setting another bottle before the hiccupping woman – his last Sakurai – and discreetly glanced in the younger's direction. Something was odd about that girl; she caught his gaze and smiled sheepishly, setting the sake dish beside Tsunade's unused one.

"This is quite good. Do you have any White Molten wine? It was recommended to me, and since I'm here anyway, I might as well try some, ne?"

The bartender just stared. White Molten was a grape wine from the Grass country, highly expensive and stronger than most men could handle after only one glass. Well, if this teenage girl could handle all half a bottle of sake and his famous Orange Rush, White Molten should give her the kick she seemed to crave.

Setting a thin, crystal glass that didn't seem to belong to such a rundown place before Auron and unlocking a safe (ninja made of the finest quality), the bartender pored a small amount of clear yellowish liquid from the bottle he'd pulled out of the now-locked chamber. It was the famous White Molten all right.

Men turned to stare in anticipation as Tsunade just stared blankly, watching face reflect in the green tinted bottle of sake before her. She was too drunk to care about the commotion.

Auron just smiled, slightly confused. "Why is everyone staring?"

The barkeeper glanced at her, putting the cap back on the golden bottle of White Molten. "The liquor is strong; not many can handle it. Most likely they think you'll fall over in a dead faint after the first swallow."

"Hmm… Interesting. I'd hate to disappoint them, though; my body will not allow to become intoxicated for too long." Seeing the huge man's unbelieving look, she just shrugged and downed the shot in one gulp.

Everyone, nowincluding Tsunade (after drinking half the sake bottle), stared in anticipation. Auron just turned and sighed, standing.

"Here's your money, barkeeper. Thank you for the excellent servce. Keep the change." She handed the gaping man a large number of bills, who took them without even counting.

Grabbing Tsunade's wrist, the younger female dragged the drunken woman now singing tunes Auron didn't know toward the outskirts of town, pointedly ignoring the stares and curious gazes of townsfolk.

So ended Tsunade's first adventure with Auron, though she remembered only half of if it. Shizune, on the other hand, wasn't so fond of Auron's '_life lessons_' with her mistress, though her ranting only gave the slug sennin's hangover more pounding.

Then they were off to more adventures, with an injured Haku, nagging nurse, energetic pig, irresponsible teacher and slightly reluctant student.

* * *

The next town they came to, Hoshiyama Village, was along the coast of Water country and the stranger's former caravan's latest stop. Auron and Tsunade arrived first, while Shizune looked for what she could do to help Haku, who was twitching to consciousness. They all needed food; their preservations had run out five hours ago, save their emergency stash. 

Seeing the familiar wagons, the girl turned to her blonde friend, a serious expression on her face. Airan was rarely more than sadistic, sardonic or morbid around the slug sennin (which they had in common) anymore, once she'd gotten over her reluctance and opened up her true personality to the slightly surprised adult. They'd had fun, acting at different bars until either kicked out or it got too late (i.e. the sun rose).

Fun as it was, Auron knew her adult world playtime was almost up.

"Tsu-chan…" the younger said tentatively, jerking other female's white coat sleeve. Tsu-chan, as she had called the older, was a nickname that had stuck after one acting prank in a particularly seedy bar.

"Yes, Ai-chan?" Likewise with Ai-chan, though Tsunade always spoke it with a comical touch.

"Ano… well… you see… the caravan Kuhai-kun and I were with kinda separated… and I saw familiar wagons… so…" Auron glanced down, seeing her friend's hand signal for a touching show. One last performance for the immediate future, then…

Forcing tears by remembering one of the saddest moments in her life (when Obaba-sama had acted dead once), Auron sniffed. Real tears ran down her cheeks in waves; it seemed as if she had lost someone important to her, as the staring villagers saw it. Tsunade glanced back at her, truly concerned, and knelt down to her level (the younger was four inches shorter).

"What's the matter, Ai-chan? Did something happen?" Grabbing the girl's shoulders and gently shaking, Tsunade made sure her face was inches from the other's.

"I-I have to leave you, Tsu-chan!" Airan let out a strangled wail after shouting sorrowfully. Even more stared and began to gather. The females just ignored them.

To the crowd, it seemed as if the reddish-brown haired girl was either the taller, blonde woman's sister, niece, or (to a choice few) young girlfriend**1**. The girl was to leave somewhere, whether be it another family member or her parents didn't approve of their relationship, and go far away, though she didn't want to. Some had to admit, they did look perfect together…

Three in the crowd knew better, though. Haku, still unconscious, watched as a memory ghost, a side effect of excepting the Thrice Heiress's blood a second time (it counteracted the Awakenment spell somewhat, so when asleep or knocked out, he could go around as a transparent being at will). He sighed to himself, knowing the girl was only joking.

Shizune on the other hand was uncertain what Tsunade-sama was doing. The elder woman did such things often enough, but never with such sincerity. Oddly, the twenty-ish female turned a bright shade of red, staring intently at the other women through fingers of the man modestly covering her eyes.

The third, Nagiru the caravan driver, had noticed his former fellow wagon traveler -- one thought captured by bandits or worse -- was chatting intimately with a woman he knew by reputation. Doing business in Konoha often, he had heard tales of the woman and her strange ways, along with Tsunade being one of the Three Sennin. Why would the one he'd watched since she'd joined his train be with the legendary Sucker, known for her monstrous strength and temper?

"Why, Ai-chan? You said we'd be together, through thick and thin, for as long as possible. Are you going back on that promise?" Tsunade asked a little too roughly, purposefully shaking the smaller girl a little too hard.

Tears streaming down her face, Auron glanced in Haku's direction and discretely winked, an impish smile soon replaced by a whimpering lower-lipped frown. "N-no, Tsu-chan! Honest, I'm not! It's j-just… I-I.." Sniffing for effect, the girl saw her pretend captor smile slightly in amusement.

'_She's good at this, really. Better kick it up a notch, then,_' the slug sennin thought to herself.

Pulling the trembling girl into a tight embrace, as if to reassure the younger, Tsunade buried her face in the girl's long brown hair. Airan's eyes widened in surprise before she sighed in contentment and snuggled into the woman's hold, startling the elder, though she didn't show it.

Anyone watching could think their own thoughts, as far as either was concerned, as long as the attention was fixed on their performance. Auron was the first to pull away.

"Ano… Tsu-chan… We did _promise_ to stay together, but… when I was separated from my caravan and you saved me from those bandits…" The crowd gasped at her quiet words and Airan couldn't help but smile, head downcast and thick reddish-brown hair falling into her face, acting as a curtain between her act and the audience. "Well… Kuhai-kun and I have ties to that wagon train…"

Tsunade sighed, looking for all the world mournfully regretful. "I understand, Ai-chan. I'll see you again, sometime. Maybe in a few years, when you're older…" A slight blush, whether from her implications or seemingly now noticing the crowd they had drawn, colored her cheeks as she continued, "Nevermind. I'll let you go, for now, my dear."

Auron smiled, a childish innocent young teen for all the world to see, and pecked 'Tsu-chan' on the cheek, before running off into the crowd now 'ooh'ing and 'aw'ing at the cheesy moment. Smiling to herself, Auron went off to retrieve Haku and rejoin the caravan.

As far as either actress was concerned, that had been a worthy show.

* * *

Riding in the back of Nagiru's wagon, Airan sighed. Haku was still unconscious and wouldn't wake for at least another few days, insistent as he was on finding out what the others thought of their sudden appearance while in ghost form. Everything was as normal as it ever was to Auron, though she found herself surprisingly missing Funno's sudden outbursts and meddling behavior. 

One of the deceased's friends, Misakichi, rode up a horse to the side of his boss's wagon, staring at the two still forms in its otherwise empty back. Silent for a few blessed minutes, he finally spoke.

"So he's…"

Auron looked down. "Yeah…"

The man smiled ruefully, a slight glint to his dark eyes. "So… What happened? If you don't mind my asking, that is," he said quickly upon seeing her look.

Auron just sighed. "Ha-Kuhai-kun tried to protect me but was wounded by taking a sword slashmeant for me. It was Tsunade-san who saved us, and Shizune-san took care of our injuries. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough medicines for my dear cousin and made to use a powerful jutsu that depleted his chakra. He'll be out for a few more days."

Misakichi stared at her in silence, then turned his head away.

The girl smiled ruefully. "Funno and the others fought as well, but were out numbered. The bandits… had a chuunin with them as well…"

The dark haired man nodded curtly, turning his horse away and driving toward the back.

Turning in his seat and handing the reins to his partner in the front beside him, the caravan driverNagiru smiled in reassurence. "Dat's dah way life is: unfair. Stop worryin' 'bout all dah stuff that dun concern yah. Live yar life as best as possible. Dat's all yah can do."

Auron smiled back, though her expression was tired and the seeming happiness didn't reach her near-transparent eyes. "I guess so, sir… I guess so."

Nagiru just smiled and turned in his seat, taking the reins back from his partner, glancing at Auron now and then. All he saw was a girl wary of the world, stroking her sleeping friend's hair and staring into the sunset over deep forest trees, sunlight reflecting in her eyes as a small smile graced her lips.

* * *

A/N: 1 – I'm sadistic, a little… Can anyone believe the fifty-year old Tsunade would go for the thirty-year old ones? Besides, she's straight… I think. Hey, you never know what she and Shizune-san _really_ do, eh? Jk, jk… Yeesh… I just like teasing, ok? 

Next chapter: 6: _Hidden Kind (stories to tell) (The caravan reaches it's last stop, a village not far from Konoha. Auron meets a hyperactive Naruto, blushing Sakura, suspious Kakashi, understanding Sandaime and maybe others! Interested yet?)_

Laters, all who read this!

_Li_


	7. Chapter Six: Hidden Tales

_**Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter  
By: Li**_

_**Chapter Six: Hidden Tales (stories to tell)**_

s-s-s-s-s-

Summary: Auron was sent from place across the ocean by a spell gone wrong, ending up on a familiar misty bridge in the Water country. Leaving Hidden Mist and separating from the wagon train, Auron and her new friends get attacked by bandits! After Shizune healed Haku's injuries, Auron and her bodyguard leave Tsunade's company to travel with the caravan again. Now they're in the Fire Country. What next?

**(1)** means to see the ending notes or glossary

"_Foreign language._"

**Spirits and Gods**

_Flashback is like this._

--_mind speach_--

Enjoy! And sorry it too so long... At least it's about 30 pages of story! I think...

s-s-s-s-s-

Two weeks. They'd been on the road two weeks, finishing most of the caravan's stops, yet there was still more to go. Two more towns before Auron and Haku would have to leave the wagon train in it's refueling station and head toward an unknown (to Haku) destination.

At the moment, said teens trudging in the forest's direction, the dark haired male was slightly confused. In the last city, Auron had spent much more money than was necessary on various trinkets she said would come in handy. He didn't know why the girl had gotten five of the same kind of crystal bracelet, and Haku daren't have tried to stop her.

Their reason for going into the woods: to get money. The dark beauty had no idea _why_ their currency would be in the middle of a secluded forest they were more likely to get attacked (again) in, but again he didn't dare object. The boy knew Auron obtained money somehow, but had either too been busy or unconscious to notice how.

Curious as he was, Haku did ask the girl walking down the steep hill in front of them, "Where are we going again, Airan-sama?" As they were speaking in Japanese, he couldn't pronounce her Flordinese name quite right.

Near-transparent orbs glanced at him from a head of pony-tailed reddish light brown hair. Auron just smiled, the gleam in her eyes amused. Not a good sign for one's nerves, he had come to know.

"To get money, of course. Where else would we go when we're out?"

_A bank,_-- he mind-murmured sarcastically, knowing full well she could hear him. Her smile only widened.

_Good idea, Haku-kun! If we stay quiet, bandits and animals are more likely to leave use alone!_—She turned back to the non-existent trail that seemed to take shape with her every step, something he was definitely not used to seeing. It was as if the trees and plants were reacting to her every presence, which was somewhat disturbing.

_Right, then._—Haku continued to trudge along, happier when the trees shaded their heads. Ah, how he loved forests and nature! Think of all the herbs that could be here… --_Where are we getting the money from?_—

Auron smiled. –_A Goddess friend of mine. Her name is Athne# (awth-nay), Shunhi's consort. Remember him, ne?_—

Shunhi, the shinigami who had helped refuel his body and introduced Auron to him and his precious person's souls, was a Death God of the highest rank and long time friend to his mistress. Haku should have known that his consort would be the girl's friend as well.

Coughing slightly to get his attention again, Auron nearly tripped over a fallen tree branch. Haku caught her waist and pulled her back, earning a thankful smiled and spoken message. "I think we should stop talking and concentrate on not doing what I just did again. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

Auron smiled at him and continued on, humming the song he had heard her singing before to herself. Her mind wasn't as closed as he would've thought, so he heard her mind-voice singing the words as if they were a lullaby:

_Cold brings Spring,  
Spring brings rain  
of melted ice shining.  
Flowers Bloom to  
bring good things  
as peace and prosperity._

_Tell to none  
the circle's gather  
of endless knowing  
the Hearts bring._

Haku shivered, knowing the whole version by heart. The song was haunting if sung out loud, but even more so when sung quietly at night in the gloomy darkness without a moon and eyes closed to listen. What the verses meant or who created the music he did not know, but he could only pray that it didn't mean what he thought it meant.

The boy continued to walk, severing his talking mind link with his mistress and concentrating on seeing if there were any threats within the immediate area. Just to get the song out of his head, he did as he was assigned. Good thing it worked, too, or the bandits a few miles off would have never made it back to their camp with the fruits of their exploits.

s-s-s-s-s-

It was late afternoon by the time Auron and Haku reached a resting spot. A clearing with a small pond, surrounded by trees, and well hidden was perfect for what Auron had in mind. She needed a secluded spot to summon, as Haku had recently found out.

"Is this place expectable?" the boy asked his mistress, still a little uneasy. Sure, he knew the girl was close friends with various Gods he'd never heard of, but to call upon one without so much as an offering was plain foolishness. Then again, Haku had found out the hard way how impulsely she made her decisions sometimes.

Auron glanced at him from the corner of her eye, face expressionless. "Quite. Remember, I will not be harmed; the contract I have with then prevents such things." Contract? He'd heard her mention it a few times in their more lengthy conversations.

Even if he couldn't contradict her decision, and knew about the treaty between herself and the Gods (even if he didn't know what it entailed), he was still worried. Maybe she was on good terms with shinigami and the like, but it my not be so with others. And why ask for money from this 'Athne', anyway?

Auron sighed, having heard his thoughts, but chose to ignore them in favor of setting up the sacred circle. If there was one thing she'd excelled at in her brief stay at the Mage University # (after being kicked out for causing too much trouble, of course), it was summoning spells.

Walking up to a tree giving off a strong aura to her senses, Auron clap her hands twice and bowed her head in a praying position. Haku, though curious, kept his distance. Something strange was going on with the tree's bark, though.

A shallow whole appeared in the thick trunk, level with Auron's white-gloved hands (a gift from the caravan, from Funno's stalks). Inside shone a beautiful walking stick, uncarved but still sporting a naturalistic design. It was perfectly new and untouched by either erosion or human hand, and the tree was offering it in answer to the girl's prayers. Said youth just reached into the whole and pulled it free from the vine securing it, smiling all the while.

"_Good to see some things still work_," Airan murmured in Flordina to herself. Haku nodded absently, unsure what to do.

Holding the huge stick –perfect for her height—as one would a staff ( a little bigger, with a natural handle), Auron used the butt to draw unknown-to-Haku symbols in the round lines already made by her sandaled foot in the dirt. What looked like a '4' with a tail pointed south, a horseshoe with a dot in the middle went northward, to the east a triangle with a bottom line going down (hooked at the end), and a circle with a squiggly line west. Another circle followed the strange symbols, a fancy rose-like design in the very middle, surrounded by four diamond shapes separated by small dot/holes.

Haku, as he watched in fascination, couldn't help but be aweful of his mistress's knowledge of foreign magic. He'd only seen ninja arts and a few magic sideshows in his travels with Zabuza, and even less of Auron's art in his time with her. Quite amazing, really, that she didn't use any chakra in the making of her summon seal.

Auron's body relax completely as she sat cross-legged in the circle's southern side, the rose's stem almost touching her feet as she began to chant in a language somehow familiar. Little did he know, Airan was speaking the Olden Land System1; a sequence of words older than most demons themselves, and known only to the Gods and those old enough to remember. It was a mystery she had ever heard the sounds, let alone knew the language fluently. Her contract with the Gods? Could be…

As her chanting continued, the inner circle around her began to glow, connecting with lines of pure light with the outer circle between the symbols. A body began to form above the rose's syral; curvy, feminine, and loosely clothed in something similair to a bathrobe. Haku continued to stare.

The summoning's body became complete within minutes, and Auron colapsed forward into the dirt from overuse of magical energy. Her subordinate, worried though he was, couldn't penitrate the barrier feild now surrounding both strange females, one now kneeling beside the other. All he could to was watch; and stare in surprise a moment later.

Athne, for her oblivious part, was beautiful beyond anything comparably Mortal. With long flowing blueish hair and olive skin wound tightly over firm parts, she was the essence of patient beauty. Light blue clothe, similair to her summoner's own original outer clothes, surrounded her womanly form, loose and flowing around her like rivers of silk. And Auron was friends with this obvious Goddess? It was just too overwelmbing.

"_Lady Auron. Lady Auron. Please awake, dear. Why is it you summoned me in the middle of a shower?_" the Goddess Athne asked her Mortal friend in Flordina. Said Lady began to sturn upon the Immortal's probing, only enough to twitch and lay on her back --moving enough to disturb the mystic circle and cause the barrier to flicker-- though.

"_Eh? You came, then, Athne?_" murmured the sleepy exiled Heiress.

Athne huffed slightly, leaning back as she floated mid air. "_Of course I did! You called, didn't you? What is it you need?_"

"_Hmm...? Need? Oh, yes. More money,_" Auron stated plainly. Haku just stared, too shocked to know how to react.

The blue haired Goddess just laughed, snapping too-perfect fingers as her consort had done monthes ago, only this time to summon the matierial Auron had asked for. "_Only that, then? Right, dear. Much get back; can't keep that love of mine waiting, now can I?_"

"Sou ka..." Haku murmured, gaining Athne's attention.

"_So this must be the soul you resurected. Haku, eh? Well, then, dear, keep this little 'un safe, alright?_" Athne stared down at him in a treatening manner, ignoring Auron's veiled-by-bangs glare.

"H-hai!" the beautius youth stammered in answer.

The Goddess just smiled at him in way of reply before disappearing with a final goodbye to them both. Where she went no one but Auron, at the very least, could guess.

Haku, still stunned, said the only thing that came to mind. "That's Athne-sama?"

Auron glanced at him, still counting the piles of bills her Immortal friend had matierialized, and smiled knowingly (with a slight humoric twist). "Yeah, that's her." Taking pity on her overwelmbed warden, the girl nodded to herself and started stuffing the paper money into an odd looking bag that seemed never to be full.

Tying the string and placing the bottomless bag back in her white pant's pocket, Auron smiled. "Better get back to the caravan; they'll be leaving soon, I bet." As she began to walk yet again, showing no signs of the fatguitute that had consumed her moments before, all Haku could do was follow. What an interestingly surpsrising person his mistress was...

s-s-s-s-s-

When the caravan arrived at Yachimaru, a village not far from Konoha, Auron was restless shifting in the back of Nagiru's uncomfortable wagon. For the past few days it had rained nonstop, only to dawn cloudless on this one: caravan's final day. Yes, the Town of Yachimaru (named for a retired shinobi that founded it) they now entered was their last stop.

Haku knew their next destination was Konohagakure, the ninja Hidden Village of his former killer's origin, a place not far from their current location. He and Auron were nervously anxious for different reasons; for him, the possiblity of being found out and tracked by hunter-nin, thereby putting his mistress in danger; and the girl feared her duties upon meeting Naruto again.

Masakichi, a former friend of Funno's whom Auron had grown tentitivey close with, steered his mount over to Auron and Haku's station, smiling warmly at them. He was an older gentleman, though young enough to move freely, with a road toughned attitude and vague outlook on life. The man had seen a lot of death, as common as it was in the Ninja Territories, and sympithised with the young girl after what he supposed was her first brush with killing.

Haku, who was warily excepting of the man as a friend of his charge, tensed slightly as he road up to the side and began to chat with Auron, who just smiled her usually guarded smile and ignored her subordinate's unconditional worry. It wasn't like the man could do anything anyway, what with all the eyes watching her.

Yes, Nagiru the caravan master, still stalked her with his gaze like a hawk, easier as it was now that they shared a fire. If she was ever out of his line of sight, one of his closer guard men would warch her actions closely and report anything strange back to him. The gazes only increased after she and Haku returned from Tsunade-sensei (what she usually called Tsu-chan in public) and Shizune-san's care. And most of them were suspicious or down right leering. Haku, for his part, just glared back at the looks when her acting obliviousness didn't cause them to go away.

Auron smiled as Haku shifted across the small wagon back and to his mistress's side, joining the conversation she already shared with Masakichi.

"Hey, there, Kuhai-san. Feeling any better?" the youthful man asked, a breezy sweeping some of his black hair from it's long pony tail. '_What was it with the caravan men and pony tails?_' Haku asked himself. Even the horse helping boy, Nagiru's nephew Chiko, had one.

Haku strained a smile, eyebrow twitching slightly, as he counted to ten. He'd only been injured once, and everyone save Auron, who knew him well enough to respect his privacy, treated him with such delicate care it was annoying. He's been ordered by the wagon train's master to never leave the camp without an excort (thankfully Auron quilified as one), and most of the men were careful to do nothing to offend or otherwise upset the effeminine teen.

"Fine, thank you, Masakichi-san. How are you?" Haku asked, making an effort to be polite even as his eyebrow continued to twitch.

The dark haired man made no indication he noticed anything strange in the pale boy's behavior, though he did glance at Auron a few time, whom just continued to smile happily. "Good, good. Keichiro was asking the other day if you wanted some more 'ah that fruit. It was good, wasn't it?" Friendly coal eyes stared at him intensely; it was always how the elder male acted when discussing buisness.

Haku blink a few times, then answered, "It was fine, Masakichi-san. How is Nadema-san, anyway?" Nadema Keichiro was Masakichi's buiseness partner and close friend; they were both usually insperatable when in each other's approxamate presenses.

Masakichi's eyes lit up, and he smiled warmly. "He's fine, Kuhai-san. Kind of you to ask, though. I'm sure he'd be thrilled." Haku blushed. The caravan men had become much too fond of himself and Auron over the months they'd traveled together; it was a shame they had to leave. Being aroung such obnoxious yet caring men (and even a few women) was a change from being alone with Auron (in the forest while he was still transparent) and hanging around Tsunade-san and Shizune-san (still transparent, after the attack and rescue from Auron's other persona Sukien).

"Actually, Masakichi-san, it's extremely kind of you and your... friends to care about Haku-kun so much." Haku-kun, as Auron had begun to call him in public, was assumed by all to be an unrelenting nickname from the _cousin_'s childhood. It fit the youth, though, everyone thought.

It was the man's turn to blush as he glanced down at his horse's neck, mummbling something about fruit and meeting Keichiro. Auron just chuckled as the elder turned his mount off, leaving the snow-like boy confused and blinking.

"Eh?" was the most intellegent thing he could think to ask.

_Why was he flustered, you ask?_-- Auron mind-spoke, smiling at him as Nagiru helped his subordinates unload fruit, vegatatles and various other things, stealing glances in their direction every now and then. --_Keichiro is very special to him is the answer, and many might be jealous if he continues to talk with you as they work to set up their wares._--

Mouth shaped in an 'O' of understanding, Haku stared off in to space, thinking of all the wonders in the world, unknowingly how Naruto had once done after meeting him for the first time.

"We'd best pack up, eh, Haku-kun?" Auron stated suddenly, and with her subordinate nodding in agreement, they were ready to set off. Both receaved a variety of gifts from either blushing or well wishing fellow caravan travelers, along with a sealed onvelope for the Hokage and note for them to read later on presented by Nagiru. All were packed safely in a bottomless, weightless bag given to Haku by Athne in her last money summoning, and both mistress and gaurd once again set off.

It would be a week or so before they reached their destination of Konoha's gates, but Auron didn't mind. It was just some quality time with the friend she already knew well. And for once, all was right with the world as it should be; at least, for the moment that is.

s-s-s-s-s-

Standing before the Hidden Leaf's huge front gates, the two young '_girls_' became slightly nervous. Well, one acted as the other tried to remain impassive. Haku, easily mistaken as the older female, still wasn't used to go guard-mode in others' presences. And looking like a delicate beauty didn't help much in the threatening area, either.

"State your names, Country, and reasons for visiting Konoha," shouted one of the guards from the gate's heights, surprisingly having his voice heard. A chuunin, whom had been warned by the look out of the teen's approach, glared coldly at them in a hopefully threatening manner. Haku glared back, and looked more pouting than anything else in the guard's lovesick gaze.

Auron smiled up at the yelling man, and shouted back, "Kandai Shurina and Shinsetsu Kuhaina of the Snow Country, come to see the Hokage upon our Lord's orders!" Haku didn't bat an eye at the girl's lieing, remaining in a protective stance he'd learned ages ago from Zabuza (surprisingly) nexted to his mistress.

One guard's eyes widened as the other's narrowed. Hidden Snow and Hidden Leaf were on good terms; why would the Lord of Snow Country send two young girls? Both were most likely lying.

Signaling his lovesick comrade at check their papers, the jounin atop his Village's gates glared down at them with suspicious eyes. A Snow shinobi once killed his fiance in cold blood; a missing-nin, actually. While he didn't hold it against the _girls_ themselves, he had come to reguard anyone from the always-cold country with immeaditate distrust.

The chuunin guard bellow, blushing slightly and trying to avoid Haku's gaze, murmured, "Your papers, please?"

Auron smiled, reaching into her backpack as the former assasian remained indifferent to her right. "Yes, yes, of course. Just a moment..." She continued to rummage through her pack, still not finding the plastic folder Athne had given her the day before containing forged documents sporting authentic signitures. Haku and the unnamed nin sweatdropped.

"Ah, here they are!" The girl waved a clear folder up from her white pack, crowing loud enough for the guards atop the wall and gate to hear. Auron handed them to the nervous chuunin, grinning widely at her protector. Haku, still uneasy about the possiblity of being recognized, knew the girl was trying to get his mind off near-impossible things. (Even if he was still in the Bingo Book, his entry would've been marked **Dead**.)

The Leaf nin before them just nodded, eyes down cast yet still attentive to any threat, and took the papers.

While waiting for the young man to check their forms over, Auron glanced back at Haku and started a mental discussion, humming to herself all the while. The suspicious guard just glared, though not with the intensity he did when the Kyuubi brat was within seeable distances.

_Are you alright, Haku-kun? You know they can't do anything, ne?_-- Auron

_Yeah, but..._-- Haku

Auron mentally scowled. --_Tsk, tsk. No buts. Even if they try something, I won't allow them to harm you. You _know_ I need you too much for that._--

Haku nodded, a slight embarrassed blush tinting his cheeks. --_I know..._--

_Good. Now, pay attention._-- The young chuunin was done looking through the papers and was waving to his comrades above as Auron severed their mental link, her friend now reassured.

An ANBU wearing what looked like an otter mask teleported down, attitute cold and aloft. Haku internally scowled; he could be a threat. Outwardly, Auron having sensed his change of mood, the mistress was smiling politely as her guard remained calmly indifferent.

"Your papers requested a meeting with Hokage-sama; please follow me," a muffled male voice stated, fluid body as relaxed as an assasian's ever could be.

The brown haired girl smiled at him, hands clasped behind her back, as she answered cheerfully, "Ok."

Haku, still suspicious, only calmed when Auron hand signaled him both mentally and physiclly to do so. Once again they were off, this time within Konoha's limits, starting what Auron hoped to be a changed destiny.

As Auron stepped through the gates, a shiver ran down her spine, though she showed no hesitation or outward hint at her sudden discomfort. Her connection with places, all places, a connection that could not be explained by any of Flordina's finest exberts, was acting up again. Something would happen this day, and all the days she spent within the Village's boundaries.

She just hoped her feeling was a good one. She couldn't afford to mess this up; not here, not now, not ever.

s-s-s-s-s-

The Hokage of Konoha sat at his desk as usual, milling through the piles of paperwork that accompanied his rough job. Not that he disliked it, mind you; protecting the Village was a great honor, in his mind. A common enough day as it was, it became startling to Sarutobi as something unusual happened.

"Hokage-sama," one of his jounin guards addressed him. "Hokage-sama, there are two young girls here to see you."

'_Two young... girls?_' the Hokage thought, a slight blush marring his cheeks and bit of blood dripping from his nose as he thought perverted thoughts. '_What could they possably want?_'

"Who are they?" Sandaime asked the unknown jounin.

Said high level nin glanced at his clipboard, reading the page under the top one (for random doodles). "To messengers from the Snow Country, with notice forms for you, sir. One appears to be an undercover chuunin guarding the young dipolmat."

The Hokage nodded vagely, puffing from his pipe thoughtfully. The Hidden Leaf and Snow were on relatively good terms; a treaty had been signed about twenty or so years back, renewing itself every five years. "Send them in," he ordered, still deep in thought.

The jounin nodded, teleporting out in a puff of smoke. A few moments later, reappeared with two pretty teens. One, with her long black hair, dark chocolate eyes, and palish skin was a real beauty, the loose virgin white training gi and shirt only adding to the graceful air around her. The other, slightly smaller, was quite pretty as well, and her eyes were most intreging. Who was she, to have near-transparent blue orbs of such an odd shade?

All three bowed, two in greeting and one in leaving, to the Leader of Konoha. The reddish-brown haired girl spoke first, clutching a small breifcase in one hand and a small wrapped package in another.

"Greetings, Hokage-sama," the seemingly-younger girl began politely, the door closing just as she started speaking. "I am Shurina of the Kandai Clan, and this is my guard and cousin, Kuhaina of the Shinsetsu Clan. He is a chuunin accompanying me with this." She set the breifcase on an (rarely) empty part of his piled desk, opening it for Sarutobi to see inside.

The Sandaime, for his part, was amazed. The Hidden Snow's leader wanted a firmer peace treaty and trade rights? Odd of the man; from what the Hokage could deduct, Snow's Kage was extremely arragont and power hungry. Why the sudden change?

As if hearing his thoughts, Shurina continued, "Our leader, Hokage-sama, has been foolish in his past thoughts and actions. To make up for his mistakes, he wishes to give you this," she handed him the wrapped package, "and have us stay here as ambasiders."

The Hokage just nodded, taking the treaty papers already signed by their 'Kage and placing them on a pile to his left. "Thank you, Kandai-san, Shinsetsu-san. Please enjoy your stay. I'm asuming you'll be renting, then?"

Shurina smiled, hands folded in front of her. Kuhaina remained impassive, standing to his ward's right. The Hokage just nodded.

"Yes. Do you have any reccomendations, sir?"

Sandaime spent the next half an hour chatting with the young diplomat, asking questions as well as answering them. After a satisfying conversation, he dismissed both to begin his paper work yet again.

Glancing at the sheets Shurina had given him, the Hokage did a double take. That name, under the embasiter's family relatives... He hadn't seen it in so long; no wonder Kandai-san's last name sounded so familair...

'_Well, this is bound to be interesting. Especially if _his_ daughter is here._' The Hokage just smiled. Hopefully the younger generation would profite from having Shurina, child of _the_ Kandai Ashira, thought long dead, was here. '_I wonder if she's anything like her father..._'

At the moment Sarutobi thought above, Auron (Kandai Shurina is her codename, if you've forgotten) was walking lazily along the path between training feilds 9 and 10, Haku hovering impassively at her back. "Ah, so good to be here! I've always wondered what Konoha was like!" The teenage girl smiled to herself, glancing back at her protecter and begining to walk backwards.

"Hmm?" Haku asked in confusion.

_I've read scrolls and phrophecy records of this place, and heard of it from Naruto-sama of course, but never really seen it with my own two eyes,_-- Auron answered him mentally.

Haku just nodded.

Without warning, or the beautius boy's notice, the near-transparent eyed girl's heel hit a rock, causing her to fall backwards. Haku, as fast as he was, caught his mistress before she hit the ground, gaining her thanks. In their compromising position, with Auron in her guard's strong arms, faces inches apart, someone took this moment to giggle and point.

Embarassed, the snow-like male glanced up in surprise, only to meet a familair soulful blue gaze. He instantly pale, helping his mistress unconsciously to her feet, and took a step back. He was the one who'd been their during Zabuza-san's death and Airan's arrival at the bridge, the one who understood. It was too much; Haku disappeared into the forest, intent on watching his mistress and could-be-friend from a distance.

Auron just smiled, standing in the familair stranger's veiw. Her grin didn't meet her arch-like eyes, and hid her nervousness from public veiw. After all it wasn't everyday you met...

"Hello again, Naruto-kun."

s-s-s-s-s-

Auron sat with her new friend, the one who'd save so many, at a town ramen bar. She knew his secrets, name and buried scars, yet he knew nothing of herself, only that her eyes were warmer than most of the villagers' and this meal was her treat.

The young exiled Heiress couldn't help but inwardly laugh at her own foolishness, getting caught up in something she shouldn't have. It was too late to drag her sorry behind out now, now that she'd met her lord Kitsubi-sama a third time...

'_No, no. Stop those thoughts, girl. Besides it's impolite to ignore your guest's attempts at conversation.'_

Opening her ears to Naruto's voice, Auron smiled.

"Then Sasuke-bastard..." He was interrupted by the arrival of Auron's ever-shadow Haku, who'd finally caught -found them, really- up to them. Wearing loose pants; tight enough that they didn't get in the way or restrict movement; and a yukata-like shirt, you couldn't exactly tell if the young man was male or female.

The kitsune blinked in surprise at the new arrival, studying the boy with squinted eyes, thinking. You could almost hear the gears turning in his spiky-blonde head.

Auron just couldn't resist. "Don't' think too hard; you might hurt yourself."

Naruto just nodded in conformation, not noticing Auron's suppressed giggles or Haku's backhanded chuckles. It took a few more moments for the blonde to realized he'd been tricked, but his whined "HEY!" only seemed to fuel their laughter all the more.

After calming down enough to speak without bursting into laughter, Auron introduced her guard. "This is my cousin, Shinsetsu Kuhaina. He accompanied me here from the Water country." Haku bowed, then returned Naruto's nodded of acknowledgement.

Then the kitsune carrier's bright blue eyes widened to unspeakable proportions in surprised when he finally got a clear view of the feminine-looking teen. "You're a **GUY**?" he exclaimed loudly, pointing a finger at the boy now used to such reactions.

Haku chuckled and nodded. "Yes."

Ayame, the shop owner's daughter, interrupted the youth's conversation with fresh bowls of ramen, blushing at Auron's warm smile and quiet '_thank you_'. '_Another one like Soran here, eh? That's what? Six I've seen?_' the payer mused at the girl's reaction, hiding her wide grin behind eating habits fast enough to rival Naruto's own.

Eighteen bowls, three dumpling dishes and a sake bottle later (Auron was fond the stuff, though never seemed to stay drunk for more than ten minutes at a time), Auron paid with cash, startling a huge smiled out of the owner. "Come again!" he called as they left.

'_Better ask Athne-san to get me more money tonight. I'm almost out._'

Haku followed silently a few steps behind them as Naruto and Auron walked down the busy market way. Many pedestrians glared, trying to avoid the Kyuubi no Kitsune vessel mostly, some even daring to send the two pretty (in Haku's case, beautiful) '_young ladies_' pitiful glances. Others wondered what the boy had done to get the attention of two such angels and why they would be with the dead last and not chasing after Uchiha Sasuke as so many others did.

Naruto just ignored everything but his conversation with his new friend, seemingly oblivious to the hurtful stares and deadly gossip undertones that followed him everywhere. He continued to smile and gesture this way and that while Auron mentally sighed, leading the genin of Leaf toward the deserted Academy.

She smiled, hand signaling for Haku to follow at a moderate distance, and continued the conversation despite her frustrated thoughts. He was her hero, mentor and savior, one to many others (future or present) as well. Yes he was still a child, growing into the makings of a strong adult. Many dangerous hardships awaited him just around the corner, and she would try her best to soften the blows as best she could. Even if she meddled, nothing much would change; at least Naruto would be spared some grief.

When they arrived at the Academy playground, Auron dropped her smiling face and turned it to a serious one. She would not act; everything must come from the heart, she reminded herself.

She didn't have to look to see Naruto's warily nervous expression or tense form; she sensed both. The girl took a deep breathe in preparation, exhaled, then smiled sadly

"I-I'm sorry, Uzumaki-san." hat caught him off guard, but her still had enough sense to take a taijutsu defense position. Mentally, Auron couldn't help but cheer for her hero's sense, even if it took form from painful experience.

Holding up a hand, Auron sighed. She needed another approach. "Please don't attack, Uzumaki-san. I can't harm you; I don't even know _how_ to fight." Naruto relaxed, and so did Auron. "A-an' I know we just met but, could we...well... just talk?" This part was said hopefully and caused the blonde to blink in confusion.

When had someone just wanted to talk with _him_?

s-s-s-s-s-

'_She wants to talk... w-with me of all people? Why?_'

'**_Don't think do much, kit. Take advantage or the opportunity. It's not every day a pretty girl like her wants something of a youngling like yourself._**'

Naruto couldn't help but agree with the youkai lord on this one, and sighed mentally.

Externally he nodded shyly, causing the girl to smiled brightly and bug/glomp him shouting "Thank you!" He couldn't help but enjoy another person's warmth; not many people had ever wanted to touch him unless necessary. he missed the embrace, the affection, as soon as she pulled away, but it was replaced with a hand on his shoulder in reassurance.

Her odd colored eyes that reminded him slightly of the Hyuuga's, though not nearly as pale, didn't hold the lonely sorrow or emptiness he'd thought they should have, but a wisdom beyond him. Her smile was warm and hand gentle as she pushed him firmly into the swing he'd loved so much back in his Academy days. She, in turn, leaned against the tree, one hand on the rope, the other leisurely plucking at bark, and smiled ruefully.

A faraway looked crossed her face as she began. "I'll start, then, ne?" She didn't wait for an answer. "I grew up in an overprotected place, away from most other people besides my family and teachers, not having to do any work. I... never knew my parents, but their mothers -my grandmothers- were there for me, in their own way."

Airan chuckled then, and Naruto couldn't help but think, '_Another like me, just not as lonely. Why aren't her eyes like the rest, then?_'

Still looking away, she continued, "I had friends, one close and the others semi frequent acquaintances. My father's mother, Obaba-sama I called her, told me stories of the outside world. I grew up with different opinions and ideas than most people, but no one disliked me for it. Disclosure is a type of loneliness, I guess, but it didn't really matter, then.

"A few months ago, Obaba-sama sent me away for some reason. I don't know why. Ha-...Kuhaina-kun came after me, to guard me against any dangers of the road, I think. We joined a merchant caravan up until a few days ago, after it came to its final stop in a town close by Konoha."

She turned to Naruto and smiled, though he could tell she wanted to cry and the happy expression was forced. he didn't show it, but if someone who knew his pain could clearly see it in his eyes, he was concerned for this person who suppressed her emotions more than anyone else he'd ever met, eve Sasuke-teme.

"Thank you for listening. It really helps." She moved from her leaning position against the tree to leave, waving to the boy trying to make a decision. "See you tomorrow, Uzumaki-san! Ja ne!"

Before she could go more than a few feet, Naurto yelled, "WAIT!" Turning to face the blonde, who now knew he had her undivided attention, she waited.

"You're welcome." He gave a true smile, which turned into a fox grin. "And I'll protect you and your cousin until you can go home! That's a promise from the future Hokage!" Naruto puffed out his chest and posed, making Auron laugh and smiled happily.

Gesturing for the boy to follow her, eyes covered by bangs, she began to walk again.

Worried that he hadn't cheered her up enough, the blonde asked, "Airan-san, is something wrong?"

Her frowning mouth turned into a smiled and she turned to face her friend with happy arches for eyes. "Oh, nothing. Just wondering if this 'future Hokage' would like to stay with me for a few days... or weeks. Better if he's around the person he's supposed to protect, ne?"

Upon Naruto's startled look, she just laughed. "And you'll have to know you client's real name, right? It's Kandai Shurina; Airan's just a nickname."

Airan continued to walk, conscious of the boy's growing excitement.

"Really?" Naruto asked cautiously. In the past people had tricked him in ways such as this.

"Really, really," she answered, ruffling the shorter boy's hair fondly.

Naruto jumped into the air, an arm outstretched, and began to dance-walk an excitement jig. Airan watched and smiled at the boy's antics, stopping him only to continue after a few moments of personal amusement.

"There's also free hot springs next door and a training center in the back yard. Don't forget to bring extra clothes, including a yukata; I'll have a room prepared for you tomorrow, so be ready by 2 PM, ok?"

Naurto began to dance in joy again, then stopped. "Why a yukata?" he asked with wariness, wondering if this was all another cruel joke.

As if sensing his thoughts, the girl just smirked. "There's a festival coming up, right You'll have to accompany me, so you might as well look the part."

Naruto smiled hugely up at the other teen, then began to ramble on about what to pack. Auron smiled as well, thing time from watching him closely, and decided that meddling could be good, sometimes.

s-s-s-s-s-

At 2 PM sharp the next day, Naruto sat nervously on his well-worn couch in the middle of his living room, waiting for his new client to arrive. Said client's cousin and ex-substitute guard had come by a few hours before, telling him that Airan had requested the genin personally as her bodyguard; only Naruto, not Team 7. With some persuading, she'd gotten the Hokage not only to agree but class it as a C-class mission or, if anything major happened, lower B-rank (with some assistance from a jounin or chuunin, of course).

At the moment, the usually confident boy was plucking worriedly at the couch's stuffing trough a few unpatched holes, two overflowing duffle bags at his feet. He was dressed in his normal orange jumpsuit, thinking over the situation. He kept asking himself questions as he tried to clear the uncertainty of her new charge's actions, and he could answer all but one comfortably.

_Why was she being so nice?_

The answer was illusive and the question kept pledging him, wanting to be completed. If only he could find his usually never-say-die attitude and ask her himself!

Lost in thought, he hadn't realized someone banging on his door until said guest decided to start yelling. "Hey, Uzumaki-san! Come open his damn door!" The pounding continued, and since no neighbors were home, no one yelled insultingly back at the noise a signal human fist was making.

Naruto sweatdropped. It was definitely Airan. "Coming, Kandai-san!" he called back, wanting to be polite to the lady kind enough to be so nice and raced to the door.

Meanwhile, someone who knew the boy fairly well was also racing toward a destination: his genin team's meeting point, thoughts whirling through his silver-haired head. The man pondered what the Sandaime had told him when he'd asked where one of his students would be…

…_**Flashback Sequence (engaged)…**_

"_Naruto will be busy for a week? What do you mean?" The Hokage's news caught his attention enough that he looked up from his little orange book long enough for the perverted blush to fade away._

"_A temporary citizen of Konoha has personally requested his presence for a C-class mission," the calm old man replied._

_Kakashi wondered what person in their right mind would request the loudest, hyperactive genin in the village for a C-bordering-B rank mission. He also worried for the boy's safety from the client, as well as outside dangers._

_Seeming to sense the cause of his subordinate's unusually tense form, Sandaime sighed and stared the son of Konoha's White Fang in the eye. "His client, Kandai Shurina and her cousin Shinsetsu Kuhaina of the Snow Country, have proven so far to be trustworthy. Nagiru-san, a regular requeste of Konoha's shinobi for caravan protection, has sent a recommendation for their stay. He always has been a good judge of character. So until she or her cousin show any vague threat to this village, I am inclined to trust them.'_

_The jounin just nodded, disappearing in a puff of smoke. Left behind in his empty office covered with stacks of paperwork, Sandaime Hokage pulled a neatly wrapped parsole from a usually locked drawer in his desk. A faint blush colored his cheeks as he hurriedly un wrapped it._

'_I-I can't believe my eyes! I-I never thought I'd actually see, no own, one of these!' the old man thought, staring at the contents as if it were as valuable as gold._

_The book inside's title: _Limited Edition Icha Icha Paradise Bonus Volume 2, Uncut Millennium Edition: Some More (must be 22 or older)_.2_

_His old student Jiraiya had only released four of these!_

_Cuddling the orange book to his chest, still blushing with shojo-manga bubbles in the background, Sarutobi didn't even bother to wonder where the young girl had gotten such a treature._

…_**Flashback Sequence (disengaged)…**_

As Kakashi arrived at the meeting place to only one yelled, "YOU'RE LATE!", he finally had a real, truthful excuse.

On the other side of the Village, Naruto was also arriving at his destination, not to joyful friends but a frightened scream of someone in mental pain. Haku knew full well who it was shouting like no tomorrow, but unsure what was causing it. Nightmares or an attack?

They soon found out, as both Haku and Naruto entered the huge mansion of a house Auron was renting and made their way to her room…

s-s-s-s-s-

_**...Nightmare: Auron's Mindscape...**_

_This place... the Blood of Flight wanted to awaken again, and dragged her here to do so... But she wouldn't let it. If she had to See (cursed Sight!), something would happen...Visions of Chaos and Dark Future would come._

_If she Saw, it would be just like last time. Sukien would take over and who knew what could happen..._

_Pain. A word well known to all that exists._

**Give it up!**

_No not again... Go 'way, Yuki..._

**You'll cause the bad luck again, eh?**

_I won't I won't I won't! Obaba-sama sealed it! And the Elders sealed you!_

**Oh, did you miss me little one? Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere...**

_The voice sneers. Not again, please no... An angry growl directed at the Voice, who ignores it._

_The Elders sealed you, Yuki... You can't hurt me anymore..._

**Want to bet on that?**

_Pain. A feeling everyone knows, to some extent..._

**I am not sealed. You really believed those old coots? Pathetic. I exist in your mind, now. No one can cage me ever again, including those God friends of yours...**

_Go away, go away, goaway goaway goaway...a silent mantra..._

**You can't block me out, girl. You'll always hear me, always think of me, whenever you sleep. And if you don't sleep and pass out from exhaustion... I'll just have some fun...**

_Darkness... so cold... burning ice..._

_**GO AWAY!**_

_A shock ran through the cold world of darkness, a warming light, shocking the voice-who-would-no-listen._

**No! You should not have such power! Iie! I refuse to be sealed!**

_You have no choice, Yukinakhera. Rest in peace..._

_A bright power; a borrowed power, from those who really cared. Then a quiet voice... a warm voice... whispering..._

s-s-s-s-s-

Naruto sat beside Auron as she slept peacefully now, whispering to her as Haku mentally tried to reach her through meditation, "Wake up, Airan-san. Come home."

**Owari Chapter Six**

s-s-s-s-s-

A/N: This is quite late, isn't it? I won't type excuses; instead I'll answer reviews!

**1** **The Olden Land System**  
A sequence of words used by old creatures of the land, separated into three main groups: Formal, Juna, and Sunette. Auron uses both Juna and Formal; Sunette is growls, yips, and other such sounds, used by the more animalistic of OLS speakers.

**2 Limited Edition Icha Icha Paradise Bonus Volume 2, Millennium Edition: Some More (must be 22 or older)**  
What Auron gave to the Hokage as a bribe. Where did she get this, when only 4 copies were made? Athne, of course!

**Next Chapter:** _To Die (another day) (Naruto is now staying with Auron, and meets Team 7 again, along with others. Why is someone peeping on Haku at the hot springs? And why is Auron acting so weird lately? Does it have to do with the nightmare? An interesting chapter, I do hope so.)_

**Credits**

big daddy cool: Thank you, thank you. Glad you enjoyed it!  
Mishibara (Kari): You reviewed the most! Thanks! And I do try to update…  
YamiMitsu: Hmm… I'll look it up… I do think you're right, though… Not quite sure.  
shina-lim: I didn't get Kachan, my beta reader, to edit my stories. If you don't mind spelling errors, read the chapter posted the first time. If you do, read it the second time around. She's edited it by then, usually.  
sekid: Half about Auron (only from her POV), but mostly about Naruto and Konoha after chapter Five.  
Hitomi: Reasonable question, Hitomi-san. Auron (who is female, of course) is 60 Seasons. Since there are only Two Seasons in Flordina, her home, she's thirty, but looks around 15 or 16. Since the Flordinese live a lot longer than the normal 70 to 80 of most people, their bodies are a lot stronger. See the glossary, in chapter one references, for more information.  
Y.Mitsuki: Glad you like it. And I do try to update!  
P.nix: It makes you hang off the edge of your seat and wanting more? To most authors', that's quite a compliment, you know. Thank you, and I hop you enjoyed this, Nix-san.

_**Li**_


	8. Chatper Seven: To Die

_**Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter  
By: Li**_

_**Chapter Seven: To Die (another day)**_

-s-s-s-s-s-

Summary: Auron, throughout all her adventures with her reserrected guard Haku, arrived in Konohagakure last chapter. After meeting a few key characters, traveling the length of both Water and Wave countries, said girl as been gone from her mystic home somewhere around six monthes. Now with the boy to become her Lord (Kitsubi-sama) stay at the rented house in Hidden Leaf's main district, something odd begins to happen... Why is she having nightmares, and who is this 'Yuki'?

**Helpful Notes**: "_This_" is someone talking in a foreign language. --_this blah blah_-- equells telepathy between Auron or anyone else. **Kyuubi** and _Naruto_ speak with each other with no mark surrounding the text. Anything with a number by it means to see the footnotes, as # is to the glossary. **Gods** talk like this, and **_this_** in flashbacks.

**Warnings**: shounen/shojo ai (non grafic and mostly just hints), disruptive OC,

Nothing to say, so just read...

-s-s-s-s-s-

"You sure this is the way, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked her jounin instructer as two gennin and the former ANBU members of Team 7 headed toward their comrade's temporary residence. After announcing that Naruto would be out of their way for a week on a speciel requested C-class mission, and getting stuck finding that stupid cat Tora again on their assigned D-class one, Sasuke and his pink haired team mate had demanded to see the loudmouth blonde.

Kakashi summoned his dog (the one sent with Naruto to find Gaara) and gave the command to follow Naruto's scent, who then took off with his master and students hot on his little paw heils.

"Hey, pinky," stated the cute runt (_Inner Sakura: PINKY? I'll throttle you!_ Outwardly she was unfased, though her green eyes were oddly homosidle...) as he continued to jump from roof top to shutter. "I'll have you know my nose is topnotch."

"I wasn't asking," muttered Sakura beneith her breathe as Inner Saku made an appearence for once. Sasuke, hearing this, snorted as his fangirl blushed. Kakashi smiled behind his mask, though he knew the team was missing another to balance it out evenly.

Naruto.

Sure, the kid was hyperactive, loud, and hot-headed, but he had potentual even the most inexperienced nin teacher could see. If only there was someone better to teach him; Kakashi himself wasn't that type of never-let-die ninja. Heck, Sakura was more compadable to him than the blonde! Well, Sasuke more so than Sakura.

Sighing in dejection, the one-eyed jounin took out the only comfort he had, _Icha Icha Paradise Volume 1_. His students glared hotily, though Sasuke's was more subdued due to his cold exerior, as the mutt just continued to run.

So could up his book was he that Kakashi was surprisingly startled when said small dog stated, "We're here." The former ANBU almost fell from his perch on a random tree outside the house marked '_Kandai Residence_', though he did regain his possition in time.

Team 7 just stared in awe. The house was **huge** (in a big kinda way) and more mansion than home. It looked as if a whole Clan could fit in comfortably, though the Hyuuga would most likely have a hard time accomidating...

Everything was bamboo and Japanese style, with (from what they could gather) tatami mats and paper screne doors. The outside walls were thick and chakra enforced, though the jutsus that had been used were quite old. Sakura wondered how such a supposibly young woman could afford a place so big; Sasuke just 'Hn'ed. Kakashi, on the other hand, continued to read his book, a heavy blush tinting his clothe covered cheeks.

"This... is where Naruto's staying?" Sakura asked absently.

"Apparently," Sasuke answered. All he needed to complete his I-don't-care-so-fuck-off image was an older body and ciragette.

"He's here," the kawaii ii inu growled, then disappeared in a puff of smoke as Kakashi canceled the jutsu. No use wasting chakra; you never knew what could happen.

A buzz of unfamilair chakra coming from within said house caused the jounin instructor's head to shoot up, visable dark eye alert. The wave swept over and throught them, followed by a mind's determined scream that only one familar with dark sorrow could understand, let alone hear.

Sakura heard nothing, but Sasuke clutched his head, showing momentary weakness as he remembered his family's murders, and Kakashi his comrade's deathes. Someone, or something, had just released pent-up pain in a not-so-standard form; who it could be, the jounin teacher didn't know, though he was determined to find out.

As the sorrow enforced with a massive amount of chakra faded slowly from their minds, Kakashi jumped toward the guarded house that surprisingly let him past, intruction his students to do the same. Whoever had that much comtrol over emotions and spiritual energy was letting Naruto stay with them; most likely his _Shinsetsu Kuhaina_, whom Sandaime-sama had said was a high chuunin rank nin guard.

Running towards the house, eyes cold and determined, Sasuke had similair thoughts as Kakashi. Now to find that sorrow's source... He sweatdropped. It would be hard to find, in this big a house.

-s-s-s-s-s-

Staring down at the prone form of his sweating mistress, Haku felt an unknown feeling clench his heart. It hurt, to see her in such mental pain. All the time he'd known her, she'd never shown the slightest bit of weakness, only a lonesome sadness often pushed away. Who, or what, could cause the strong girl to break and cry out so?

Whilest the 'cousin' thought and stared, the hired guard Naruto was glancing around carefully, away where but at the vulnerable figure on the bed. He noticed, though it may have been irrelevant to some, that Kandai-san's room was sparsely clad, with no form of personal touch any where in the room. A wooden desk sat close to the bed, an eletric alarm clock blinking in glowing red numbers '_2:55_' a top it within reaching distance of a sleepy-head's arm.

The walls, a common creamy white, held no pictures or posters, though nails to hang such things on shot out from the pale surface at uneven intervals. All in all, it was an impersonal, motel-like room (without the feel of comfort the more expensive ones had).

Haku's startled gasp caught the blonde's attention as he turned his wandering gaze to the bed and prone form. Kadai-san's form was still sweat drenched and skin paler than normal, but she no longer tossed and turned as if in a nightmare, but lay still beneith the sheets. A murmur rose from her throat, words Naruto did not understand, but Haku did.

"_He was here..._" Auron muttered in Flordinese to Haku, opening a pale eye with difficulty. "_Yuki was here..._" It took all her strength to talk, something neither male was used to seeing, as the girl coughed weakly.

The raven haired man had many questions, such as: '_Who is Yuki? Why are you having nightmares? Does the Song_**1**_ have something to do with this?_' Yet Haku dared not ask his sickly mistress for fear of tiring her from the sprain of speaking.

Lost in his own thoughts and musings, Naruto noticed something he didn't: Auron was asking for something again, this time in Konoha's native language. "Water... and the tablit... please," murmured Auron sleepily, then began to cough again. The kitsune carrier immeadiately glanced around the room, looking for what she'd asked for. He found a sheat of unlabled tablets next to her eletric alarm clock, an empty cup of water beside them.

Ignoring the silvery sheen of pastic hold his ward's medicen, Naruto raised to the nearby bathroom to fill the cup so Auron would be able to swallow.

Haku awoke from his musings just as the younger male raised from the room, jumping slightly as both the girl's eyes stared into his darker ones. "Sorry," he whispered, still meeting her captivating gaze, ashamed that he'd been inattentive.

Auron's lips curved upward into a tired smile; she was obviously not the Auron he knew, and his thoughts were confirmed as she spoke again. "Hello there," she paused to cough, "Haku-kun. How are things?"

He avoided the girl's question with one of his own, "Are you Sukien?"

Sukien, Auron's other personality with two sides of her own, had saved Haku's life from bandits after he'd taken a sword slash meant for her. It had taken him weeks to recover, his soul transparent as his body went into a coma like state. It had been Anger-Sukien, then; he assumed this was Nice-Sukien, whom he'd only had the pleasure of meeting breifly twice before.

Her smile was enough of an answer. "Yes."

His mistress began to cough again, weazing as she was racked by wave after wave of fits, making her body short on air. She needed her the pills Shizune had given her, the tablets for "any delayed reactions" to what had happened a month ago. Why would they start now?

As if hearing his thoughts, the posessed-Auron gave an answer. "The dream... nightmare... Auron had..." Despite speaking Japanese, she spoke her Alternate's name perfectly, "Yuki was in them..."

"Yuki?" Haku asked tentitively, not sure if this was a touchy subject.

Sukien nodded shortly, eyes hardening. "Yuki." Before the guard could speak again, she shushed him with a gesture. "Ask no more; we have company."

Though curious about his mistress, Haku knew his top priority was to protect her. Listening closely, he heard the sound of ninja sandles on the roof tops and felt not-so-low chakra signatures a floor above them.

"A jounin," he murmured to Auron, glad of the highened senses being bound to her gave him, "one with chuunin chakra capasity but obviously a genin and," he sniffed, catching their scent from the open window, "a female genin. They are... familair." He glanced at his mistress, who only nodded, expression serious.

"_Auron is coming now,_" Sukien whispered to Haku, who whipped around a moment later as three known strangers crashed through the window.

There stood Hatake Kakashi, the gray haired jounin, ready and alert, his genin subordinates Sakura (long pink hair now tied back with a loose bow) and Sasuke (who Auron knew had semi-mastered his shirigan eyes, at the moment an onyx dark as the stone). The Leaf nin's eyes widened as they saw just who Kandai Shurina and Shinsetsu Kuhaina were.

"Airan-san?" the adult murmured in disbeleif, staring at the sitting girl drenched in sweat with a shock visable eye. "_You_ are Kandai Shurina-san?"

The girl smiled wryly, amused by the younger two's gaping, as she replied jokingly, "Whom did you expect, Hatake-san? An old woman and her twenty-some chuunin guard?"

The man sweatdropped, knowing of her sense of humor from spending eight days in her constant presense, though he'd never found out her real name. "Mah, mah. You haven't changed."

Auron raised an eyebrow, trying her best not to cough. "It hasn't been that long, Hakate-san. Only a few monthes."

Before either could continue, Sasuke interjected, "You're the Snow Country ambassiader?" His expression was shocked, something that didn't happen often, and he blushed at her reply.

"Hai, Sasuke-san. Why so surprised? It is my home village, before we began our travels." She gestured to the stone faced Haku, paused as she gave the Uchiha a once-over, and continued, "You've grown. Going to be a real heart-throb when you get older, I bet. If you aren't already." She meaningfully glanced at Sakura, a glint to her ice eyes, after winking in the flushed boy's direction.

Suddenly, a worried blonde rushed in, holding a full glass of water without spilling, and all eyes turned in his direction. "Got your water, Airan-san, then I heard voice and-" he trailed off, seeing his teammate staring.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" he shouted happily, not moving to her side like he normally did. "Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-teme (growl). Did you invite them over too?" Naruto addressed this question to the pale Auron, walking over to her table and setting the glass of water down.

The sickly girl smiled, a glint to her eye, as she ignored her apparent illness for the time being. "They seemed concerned for you, Naruto-kun, and stopped by to check on you." Kakashi winced slightly as he understood the look in her eye. "Hatake-san was just asking about you, truely."

Naruto's grin widened, still as happy and carefree as ever, and addressed his teacher. "No need to worry, Kakashi-sensei! Airan-san was nice enough to let me stay."

"So we heard," muttered the now-normal-colored Sasuke, unaware of Auron's giggling. (She'd taken a picture of him embarassed, with the video camra survalencing the room.) Sakura nearly swooned at hearing his voice, though met Auron's gaze before she could turn into a Sasu-fangirl.

'_Leave it,_' the girl's gaze said warningly, eyes cold as their icy color. '_Come here_.' Sakura did so.

As if in a slight trance, Sakura walked closer to Auron as said girl began to cough. Naruto, surprisingly, didn't panic and handed his weezing ward the water glass and pills he had stood by.

Slightly confused, all of Team 7 stared questioningly at the girl talking medicene and the rigid boy beside her. "Anything interesting happen?" Kakashi asked after a moment of uncomfortable silence.

As the tabits took effect, Auron just glanced up and sighed, sharing a small thought conversation with Haku. "Where to begin?"

"After leaving the Wave Country? And the power surge?" Kakashi volunteered, perverted book absent from his hand for once.

Auron just sighed again, sitting crosslegged under the sweat-soaked sheets, head on hand, elbow on knee. "This could take a while."

The jounin instruter smile, eye a happy arch. "We have time."

-s-s-s-s-s-

After a twenty minute explaination and various questions from the three genin, Auron and Haku's fake story was complete. Kakashi was still wary and suspicious of them both, though he was glad the girl had startled a reaction out of Sasuke several times with teasing and snide remarks. To their jounin instructor, Team 7 seemed to be getting along better in the Snow Country reprosentative's comany than out of it.

During the conversation, Haku had seldom interjected and stayed tense, all the while staring passively at the strangers. He looked familair to Kakashi, but the man knew he would've remembered such a beautiful face (even if it belonged to a man) and the name assosiated with it. Kuhaina was a nice name, though pretty feminine for a guy...

"How have things been here, Hatake-san?" Auron asked as the last question was answered, the power surge forgotten for the moment.

"Nothing but stupid D-rank missions!" Naruto cut in loudly, and began listing some of them, "Cuting grass for some old geazer, finding the Lord's wife's cat (I swear that thing hates me), weeding the Yamanaka's garden (That lady's strict! Hit me over the head too many times...), clean-"

Sakura, eye twitching, hit the blonde over the head in annoyence. "She doesn't want to here those boring things!"

Team 7, used to the two's bickering and violence, just ignored them, Kakashi turning to Auron. "What he means to say is nothing interesting has happened so far."

The girl nodded, laughing at the blonde and pink haired gennin's anticts, smiling lazily at the jounin. "Ah, I see. You did tell them what's happening in a month, right?" Sasuke, who was listening, didn't understand her last comment and went back to watching Naruto and Sakura chase each other around the room, leaving the older two (three if you counted the statue-like Haku) to their conversation.

Sweating nervously, the lazy adult whiped out his orange book, grinning his usual smile. "No... not yet. They're not ready, at the moment."

Auron smile was sweet, and Kakashi knew from experience that anyone who fell for that act would have to do as she said if they wanted to live peacefully. "Have you trained them reacently, at all?"

The instructor nodded, skimming his book's text. "Of course. What kind teacher would I be if I didn't?"

"A lazy ass one who's alway's late," Auron stated charmingly, making Sakura stop mid-chase and Naruto turn and stare; Sasuke was already looking.

Kakashi sweatdropped.

Airan continued, still smiling, "I suggest you take them seriously, Hatake-san. Not just sparing; Sakura, I'm sure you've noticed, has been lacking the reading material her mind can now handle, and Sasuke needs more jutsus to perfect. As for Naruto..." As the gennins couldn't see her face, they didn't know why their teacher's eye had widened in fright. When Auron decided something, it was final; her knowing, territorial grin proved that. "...Haku-kun and I shall help Naruto-kun."

"Mah, mah, fine," said Kakashi nervously, glancing at the watching trio. "I'll need him for missions, though." He didn't like appearing weak, or being seen pushed around by a teenage girl who wasn't even a nin. But if they new the power she had Up There... and the dirt on anyone imaginable...

Auron continued to smile, this time sweetly, as she sent a quick look to Haku, who in turn nodded slightly and rose, startling the Leaf nins. Said chuunin walked to the door, before asking emotionlessly, "What would you like?"

"An ocha (green tea), mixed with rosemary and mint please, Haku-kun." The nin nodded, turning his attention from his mistress to her friends.

"Ocha," Sasuke grunted, once again cold.

"Some of that stuff Airan-san made! It's good!" commented Naruto with his usual enthusiasum, now sitting next to Auron.

Sakura shifted nervously under the guard's dark eyed gaze, her own orbs staring at the blank wall. "Lemonade, please. I'll help..." she offered softly.

Haku nodded shortly, knowing he couldn't carry six drinks on his own, in exceptence. "Hatake-san?" he questioned the silent jounin, who was (un)suprisingly glued to his perverted novel, giggling every now and again.

The jounin glanced up and blinked owlishly, "Eh?"

"Your drink," the young man stated, blushing faintly. He'd read a copy of the book while browsing with Auron in a random shop on their travels; it was extremely graphic, cheesy, and something only dirty old men would like. His mistress, having read a borrowed copy of a carvan member's openly and without so much as a pink tint to her pale cheeks, seemed imune.

"Oh." Kakashi paused, "Tea?"

Haku nodded and left, followed by a nervously stumbling Sakura.

A silence fell, only to be broken by Naruto of all people (and not with some stupid question either, surprisingly).

"What did I need a yukata for?" he asked Auron seriously.

Sasuke stared (since when did the dobe own a yukata), Kakashi stared dreamily into space (a Naruko -Naruto's Sexy no Jutsu- in a kimono... kawaii), and Auron replied, "For the festival, of course. Didn't you know?"

Naruto shook his head, eyes gaurded and sad as he let down his mask for a moment. All three others in the room noticed, though the older two acted oblivious as the younger stared in surprise for a moment, then quickly over came it.

"No? Well, I think it's a Konoha tradition to go with family, and I thought I'd go with you and Haku, since (most) of my own isn't here..." she trailed off, expression wiskful, inwardly shuttering. '_Not that I mind,_' she thought in Flordinese, making sure the one connected her mind hadn't heard. '_It's better that thay aren't._'

Naruto's face was bright with shock, before he recovered and his face came alight with something akin to sunshine happiness; his smile brighted his face and made everyone looking smile in return (including Sasuke). "Sou ka?" he asked, glancing meaning fully at the reading Kakashi and his broading rival.

"Hai," Auron stated smiling. "And since your team is your family as well..." She turned to the teacher and student as Haku and Sakura entered the room, carrying their drinks. "Would you like to come to the festival with my cousin, Naruto-kun and I, Hatake-san, Uchiha-san," she turned to the confused pink haired on, still smiling, "Haruno-san?"

"Eh?" Sakura her tray on top of the dresser, glancing from the elder female to her not-so-secret crush. '_Go to the festival with Sasuke-kun? Inner Sakura: HELL YEAH!_' "I'll ask my partents..."

Kakashi regarded Auron for a moment before nodding. "It will promote teamwork. I'll join you."

"Don't be late," Naruto yelled, grabbing his KoolAid-like drink and sipping it. He turned to the silent brunette, scowling slightly, "What about you, Sasuke-teme?"

Haku remained silent regarding them all as Sasuke answered with a snort, "I'll go, dobe."

Sakura swooned, Naruto yelled at the Uchiha survivor, who ignored the shouting 'baka', Kakashi read his book again, sipping tea, as Auron just watched, smiling. "It's settled then. We'll meet at the park at six PM that day, shall we? All of us have a week to prepare."

'_A w-week? It sounds like a date... with Sasuke? Oh, what'll I wear, what'll I wear!_' -Sakura

'_Hn. It will be nice to not go alone this year._' -Sasuke

'_Airan-san's a nice person, inviting Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme... Grr, he gets all her attention! At least this time we can spend time together..._' -Naruto

'_Hmmm... good for you, Aiko! Ooo... is that even possible? I wonder when the next volume of Icha Icha Paradise comes out..._' -Kakashi

'_What is mistress thinking? We don't even _own _yukata!_' -Haku

'_I wonder if they know I can hear them,_' Auron sighed, leaning against the blonde sitting beside her. "It was nice seeing you again, Team 7 of Konoha. But don't you think you should report to Hokage-san? You've been here over three hours." She was right, the clock stated _6:02 PM_.

Kakashi nodded, and soon Sakura was following Sasuke home, asking for a date as their instructor went for a report. Naruto headed to make dinner (surprisingly not ramen), leaving Haku and Auron alone to talk.

"This is interesting, ne, Haku-kun?" commented the girl, leaning her back against his.

"Hai, Airan-sama," the guard replied, body tense.

The light haired girl turned to face her friend, meeting his guarded eyes. "You're too rigid, cousin. What do you people do to relax? I can give you a massage, if you want."

Haku shuttered at the thought of what had happened last time his mistress had offered such; his own needles had never seemed the same again. "No, thank you, cousin. Most go to the onsen (hotsprings)... and that sounds like a good idea."

Truthfully, his body had been tense from stress ever since they'd come within ten miles of Konoha's walls. He needed a break, and Auron's comment had given him a way to relax once again. "Shall you come as well?" he asked. If she did, there was no way he could guard her as he bathed, unless they went in the mixed baths, and (blush) that didn't seem right.

Auron shook her head, smiling in amusement. "No, no. Go and enjoy yourself, Haku-kun. I have protection enough here, in Naruto-sama as well as the walls." In private, she gave the younger boy her respect even though she showed much effection in public and said boy's pressence.

Haku nodded in agreement, raising and glancing back at his bemused mistress. He left shortly after, taking the long way to the hotsprings a few blocks away, unknowing that his mistress followed him twenty minutes later.

"I'll be going out for a while, Naruto-kun," she'd said before leaving, "I'll be back in an hour or so, enough time for you to make supper in peace. And if I'm late, don't worry; I'm going where Haku is." The boy had just nodded and continued his brewing in the kitchen, intent to please the warm eyed girl.

-s-s-s-s-s-

_At the onsen..._

Jiraiya heard a giggle from behind him and automatically turned around. There stood one of the prettiest teens he had ever seen, all chestnut hair and laughing eyes. Too bad she wore a cloak that hid her figure, though; he was sure she had a nice, fine one.

Suddenly feeling inspired, the ero-sennin (as Naruto would later call him, instead of by his name) whipped out his notebook and prepared to write, stopping only as he heard the beautiful angel's voice. "You really shouldn't be peeping," she paused to giggle and point at the wooden wall, "at a boy, sir. I'm not sure my cousin would appreciate it much."

Jiraiya glanced through his peeping hole just to make sure the pretty stranger wasn't lying, and sure enough, the pure-snow looking '_girl_' had a surprisingly straight chest. Chest-fallen, the frog hermit wilted, causing the girl to laugh even more.

"Those are the men's baths, you know. The women switched because of complaints that a strange animal was making noises. Was that you, sir? Cause it sounded high pitched and ready to mate."

He looked up, she was smiling, and that unnerved him. Usually any woman that caught him staring would've yelled "Pervert!", slapped him and beat him within an inch of his life (not that it bothered him or he minded. Some times they wore towels that came off and really short shirts... -drool-) Had me met a woman as super-perverted as he was? She looked kinda young, though.

He glanced at her warily and childishly asked, "Are you gonna hit me now?"

The girl just blinked as if the concept of hitting someone was inconceivable, then answered, "Why would I hit someone who is just trying to fulfill their passions without causing undue distress to the female population by peeping instead of just walking into the woman's bath naked?"

Jiraiya stared at the sky, a heavenly light enveloping him as chibi-angels danced around his oblivious head, thanking the Gods that there was a girl out there who didn't mind his peeping! However, the last part of her comment sunk into his vulnerable-just-messaged-a-God's skull as he began to turn toward the girl.

'_Woman's bath... walking... naked.._' drooling interpretation.

He felt a massive nosebleed coming on, a trickle of blood was already coming out, only to be whipped away by a pale hand. Said hand snapped him out of his hentai musings as he focused on it for dear life. Who knows how she'd react to a passed out super-perverted hermit she didn't mind peeping. You never know with women...

He the got a good look at her pale eyes, near transparent icy blue, warm instead of the expected cold, and to him that made her incredibly sexy. He felt another nosebleed coming on and was thankful when the female teenage stranger stuffed a few Kleenexes up his nostrils.

"Are you alright now, sir?" She sounded concerned.

"Fine, fine."

She just smiled, then seemed to notice his notebook. "You are the writer of Icha Icha Paradise?" Jiraiya nodded, silently fearful that she would act like Tsunade. She didn't appear to be a ninja or have any combat training, but in Konoha you could never know for certain.

Her (lovely) voice interrupted his train of thought; speaking but not hitting was a so-so good sign. "I just noticed your female on female scenes are a bit off..." _Eh? _"You see, my... sister likes these kind of things and kept insisting for me to make sure our guardian did find out..." _Sure_, he thought sarcastically.

"Anyway," she continued, smiling. "You are also Jiraiya of the Three Sennins, correct?"

He gave a pose, intent on giving a grand wave-crashing introduction. Her smile just widened as she interrupted, "I'll take that as a 'yes', Frog Hermit Jiraiya."

The fifty year old sulked, only to be patted on the shoulder by the nervous looking girl. "Please cheer up. I just wanted to introduce myself, Jiraiya-san."

_'No -sama?'_ he thought in reply and disappointment, then remembered her eyes. They weren't similar to any he'd ever seen in Konohagakure, and unless she was a genetically mutated Hyuuga (which he would've heard of), she was from somewhere else.

"I am Kandai Shiruna of the Snow Country. My cousin, whom you were spying on," she stopped to giggle at the look on his face, "is Shinsetsu Kuhaina of the same Country. It is a pleasure to meet you, Jiraiya-san." She bowed politely.

'_Snow Country; that explains it,_' the sennin thought, inwardly serious. No one knew much about the new ruler of the Snow Country or it's occupants, only that the Hidden Village they had was moderately powerful. What the girl said made perfect sense, but why was she here?

Instead of asking, he leered questioningly, "Do you like my novels?"

Catching the suggestion in his tone, the girl Shiruna just laughed and waved him off. "I am sorry, Jiraiya-san. Flattered, but sorry. I have a fiancé waiting for me at home, and I do not think my Clan would like me to do as you will before marriage. Plus, I am illegible to brake my chastity-till-married vow until I am sev-17 years old."

"Such a strict family," Jiraiya muttered, downtrodden by the girl's polite refusal. The only one he was actually serious about was harsher, so it really didn't hurt as much or matter.

"But don't worry; I'm sure she'll come around some day."

His head shot up. "Eh?"

The girl just smiled and reached up to pat his shoulder, "Your destined mate, I mean. Someone who travels so much and gathers all the data you do is bound to find his perfect female -or male, if you prefer," he wasn't that used to such jibes, and the wink he gave him signaled she was teasing about earlier, "sometime or another."

He wasn't that reassured, but silently thanked her for trying to help.

Unbenownced to him, she heard his murmured thought and smiled knowingly.

"I am sorry, Jiraiya-san, but I must go now. I am to meet a friend of mine soon. Maybe we can continue this conversation next time you are in town?" She looked remorseful to go, but anxious to meet her friend.

"Sure," he replied, removing his peeping pipe from the hole. "You know where to find me."

"That I do." She nodded and smiled, adding, "Follow the women's screams, eh?" He winced just thinking about those slaps and beatings, no matter how much he saw and touch.

With that, she was gone with a wave.

-s-s-s-s-s-

Auron chuckled to herself as she headed away from the hot springs and the long way to her temporary home just down the street. No need for the Sannin Jiraiya to know she lived close to one of his favorite peeping spot...

The foriegn girl glanced around, unfamilair with this path though she'd taken it more than once. It was close to a number of training grounds used by ninja ranging from gennin to jounin in their practice, though you would hardly ever see them since the Leaf''s trademark trees prevented anyone from observing unless they dared enter said Training Ground.

Walls enclosed the once-dirt path before Auron as the road become paved, telephone lines drifting down from their polls as she stared at the sky, silently stopped in the middle of the walkway. It was such a nice day; what could she do without causing suspicien?

"This way, Corps!" came the loud whispered, interupting her temporary peace. Shifting her gaze from the cloudy blue sky to the odd box dressed as a badly camofluged rock creeping across the road's edge in her general direction, Auron raised an eyebrow. Something nagged at the back of her mind that this scene was somehow familar, but she pushed it from her mind in favor of finding out whom had spoken.

Clearing her throat, Auron subduely stated, "Ano... Who are you?"

"HA!" Exploading with an overuse of gunpowder, the bow-rock-thing landed inches away from a stunned Auron's feet, only to reveal three coughing youngsters (just guess). Taking her surprise for their '_stunning_' arrival and not her rememberence of prophecy papers, the dark haired one, a beeny and goggles on his head, smiled, missing teeth apparent.

"We are the Konohamaru Corps, wishing you welcome to the Village!" the Hokage's grandson declared, stricking a pose along with his recovered friends. Auron just blinked at them, speachless.

Konohamaru's shoulders dropped as he got no reaction from the light browned haired girl, sighing. Still stunned though she was, Airan quickly recovered.

"You are Sarutobi Konohamaru-san?" she asked politely.

Said boy's face lit up as he gave her a cocky grin. "So you _have_ heard of me!"

Auron just smiled. "Of course. Sandaime-sama's grandson and..." She trailed off, seeing the younger's check fallen look as his friends tried to show their support and perk him up. Her smiled returned, larger this time, as she continued, "And the fellow pranster of my current guard, Uzumaki Naruto. He's mentioned you often. It's a pleasure to meet a friend of such a person, Konohamaru... -kun."

The boy's eyes widened to comical poportions, as did his grin. Finally, another who acknowledged him for himself, and not the Hokage's grandson!

"Just what I would expect from a friend of my rival's!" Konohamaru shouted, eyes shining.

Auron smiled brightly in return, "Not what I would expect from a future Hokage. Are your friends alright?" The with glasses was blushing as he stared at her, snott running from his nose, as the girl kept shooting jealous glances at her.

The Hokage's grandson, distracted, hadn't noticed his tutor's arrival before it was too late. "Konohamaru-sama--!" called Ebisu-sensei. All three scared youngesters took off at top speed, yelling "good bye" to their new aquantence Auron.

Smiling in amusement to herself, the girl thought as a light wind sent leaves dancing around her, '_You'll be a great leader someday, Konohamaru-kun, and all of us shall be watching._'

-s-s-s-s-s-

_The next day..._

Sandaime Hokage, once called the Proffesor, sat in his office, paperwork half way done, and sighed. For all the world he was bored, and when he was bored he tended to observe Konoha's amusing citicens through his crystal ball. And there was one such citicen he was curious about...

Gazing into his round glass, Sarutobi locked onto Kandai Shurina's chakra signiture. It seemed she was at her rented home, just leaving, as she waved to Naruto and Haku, who seemed to be training in the grounds behind the huge house.

He followed her as she walked towards the ninja Training Grounds, greeting various people politely alond the way, and as she stopped at number 44: the Forest of Death (think second chuunin exam with Anko as the instructor). His eyes widened as she easily jumped the fense, something he'd thought impossible for no one but a trained shinobi, and entered casually.

But as the strongest ninja in Konoha Village tried with all his might to lock on to Auron's as it began to fade, he couldn't find it within his crystal ball's area limits. The globe fogged up, leaving the Sandaime perflexed. The old man sighed, leaning back in his chair as he thought of other ways to cure his bordom, leaving the thought of the mystery that had just presented it's self for a better time.

There was nothing he could do to find Auron anyway; her essence and chakra signiture were gone.

Somewhere, in another demention of space where time didn't seem to exist, shadowed figures watched Auron as Sandaime had through a daimond-like looking glass. No light existed save from what reflected off the group's multipul eyes and the scene of the exiled Heiress entering a cursed wood.

"She has come," stated a nazily male voice weezingly.

"Why has she come?" asked another, the speaker obviously male from his throat's deep, booming rumble.

"To call upon us, of course," sqeeked a highpitched, female voice.

A pair of ruby eyes opened to veiw the gathering cridictly, glowing of their own right, then came to rest on the crystal scrying mirror. "**_She has come of her own right, to ask for reassurence that nothing shall come of her current decitions,_**" spoke a firey female, sounding patient, calm, and powerful.

"She may have asked from a not-so-dangerous place," commented the mouse-like one, beady black eyes twitching around the many shadowed faces.

"**_It is the only succluded place she shall be left alone in,_**" explained a soothing, airy voice happily. "**_There are those who would wish to interupt her meditation for menial Mortal things._**"

"Ah." The sound shattering voice sighed, "We all do not have the knowledge you of the Immortals do."

"**_To be expected, child,_**" commented a powerful speaker, sounding as if a mear word could cause an earthquake. "**_You are young yet and have many years to gain what we have and you lot seek._**"

"Yes, grandfather," the booming one said sulkily.

"Shall we answer her unspoken call?" asked the highpitched one curiously, being reasonable.

"**_Yes, we shall come to the Last One's current Speaker. Be polite and do not overwelm the Heiress this time, child. She was not ready at the Mortal age of eight to fully bear your annoyence,_**" answered a musical, smooth male voice, chuckling at the former's intellegable snort.

"**_Get ready for us, Leiya m'girl,_**" the musical one continued, a smile in his speach, "**_We're coming early._**"

The looking glass shimmered as the shadowy figures appeared in the trees surrounding the smiling girl, leaving the darkness of their own demention. From within the darkness, a human, male voice began laughing hystericly, coming to gaze upon the crystal mirror the illuminated jewel-green eyes alight with madness.

"Soon, my sweet. Soon I shall have you back. You may have banished me with the help of that brat this time, but ever so soon you shall belong to me once again." Continuing to cackle loudly in the echoing darkness, shoulder-length light chestnut hair fell in his face as he leaned over the looking glass. "His power shall be mine to hold, as his brother's shall be to you, Leiya-chan. Wait for me to come, and I promise you won't be disappointed.

Grinning widely, insanely, the young man broke the mirror with a surge of dark energy, leaving himself in the darkness as he began to sing her song:

_Your soul shall shatter  
as flowers bloom  
when spring comes  
from winter._

_Remember well,  
the ice that melts  
to bring refreshing  
showers.  
For all things come  
with scarifies._

He laughed hystericly. "You have to finish the song some day, Leiya-chan. I'll be waiting until that day comes... soon."

-s-s-s-s-s-

_**Owari Chapter Seven**_

-s-s-s-s-s-

**1 The Song...** _Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter_ is quoted through out the chapters. I'll have the full version later; it's written and all, but the words come in useful to confuse you all. Auron is the one who singings it, mostly; it is also where I got the title.

**2 Auron's Nicknames** vary. She hates her birthname, Lopeona Talance, and she nicknamed herself Auron (for a reason unknown so far). Leiya-chan is her childhood nickname, so Yuki (the last shadow figure, if you haven't guess) must have known her somehow in her when she was younger in Flordina. Information on him, how she's 'not-quite' human, the shadow figures she called, Kitsubi-sama, the Last One and her as he/she's 'current Speaker' shall be revealed in later chapters!

A/N: Ok, late late late and late, I know. But long is good, right? Most chapters from now on I'll try to make 6000 or so words, ok? And I think this one's good enough, since it's 6680 or so words.

**Next Chapter**: 8: _Flowers Bloom (so much like love) (The festival starts, yet Auron seems shaken, as do Haku and Naruto. What did those shadowy figures want, and why is Sakura blushing? Others of the Rookie 9 make their first appearence!)_

'Til next time, my beloved readers!

_Li_


	9. Glossary of Terms

Side to _Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter_

**...The Glossary of Terms and Contents...**

Published: 3/20/05  
Recent Update: 12/24/05

**Note**: All chapters edited and haitus reinstated (again)

* * *

**...Chapter Titles...**

(complete chapters in _italics_)

_Prologue: Bright Day, Blue Sky  
Chapter 1: Misty Legend (of a young hero)  
Chapter 2: Time's Illusions (on the road)_  
_Chapter 3: Shadow's Dreaming (on a moonless night)_  
_Chapter 4: (once in a) Blue Moon  
Chapter 5: Innocent Playing (in life unjust)_  
_Chapter 6: Hidden Kind (stories to tell)  
Chapter 7: To Die (another day)  
_Chapter 8:Flowers Bloom (so much like love)  
Chapter 9: Icy Emotions (of a firey heart)  
Chapter 10: Talking Away (and meeting those who threaten)  
Chapter 11: One's Prey (a snake in their mits)  
Chapter 12: To Watch (from afar), To Protect (our precious people)  
Chapter 13: Waiting Sleepless (to prove one's existence)  
Chapter 14: Awaiting Existence (to know what others don't)  
Chapter 15: Past Lies (saying 'goodbye')  
Chapter 16: Bless Them All (to purify fears)  
Chapter 17: Second Trail (to watch as others learn)  
Chapter 18: Dangerous Confrontions (to warn an enemy)  
Chapter 19: Love Lost (truths revealed)  
**TBC...**

* * *

**!General Information!**

**:Just about Auron:**

Auron, birthnamed Lopeona Talance, is the original character sent from the Flordina Plains by her ninja grandmother and also the lead character in _Flowers Bloom, Hearts Shatter_. Not much has been revealed about her yet, so you'll just have to read the new chapters when they come out to see her true persona and growth.

_Ancestry  
_Lalon Talance (the mother), a direct descendant of all 3 original House families as Auron herself is, married the foreigner Kondai Arishi who had just recently arrived (by storm) on Flordina's Northern coast.

Some background information on **Auron** that might be useful:

Is the Heir to 3 House Branches (even though she's down on the list for one) and used to luxury (even if she won't admit it).  
Though raised in a lazy environment, she doesn't mind doing work.  
Has played so many pranks, her senses and reflexes are higher than average.  
AThrice blood, and direct decendent of all House creator families.  
Corresponds with Gods and Goddesses enough that there is no need for formality.  
(usually Jahar, Shunhi, Joseiyor Athne)(see _Mentioned Gods_)  
Her appearance is lighter in every way than her mother and father:  
_ice blue eyes  
chestnut/reddish-brown hair  
slight but firm build  
pale skin  
__(but darker than Uchiha Sasuke's and lighter than Uzumaki Naruto's)_

**:Timeline so Far:**

(Chapter Seven)With Haku as a bodyguard, Auron travels with a caravan from the Wave Country, then to Hidden Mist, then after splitting up, they're attacked by bandits! After running into Tsunade and Shizune healing Haku's injuries, it's time for these new friends to part.They thenarrive in Konoha after the caravn's last stop, and meet up with Naruto, who then gets hooked up with Auron as her guard for apersonal D-rank mission, and now lives with her and Haku! Now she's having nightmares about someone named 'Yuki'... Who is he, really?

**

* * *

**

**!Prologue References!**

**...Seasons and Flordinese Lifetimes...**

There are two Seasons each in the Flordina Plains: Warm (Spring) and Cold (Fall). No one has ever seen snow or dead-hot temperatures, since the places (and wild-lands) where they live are warded with so many Old Magic spells, their world is virtually cut off from other countries.

Though someone may be 20 or so Seasons, the equivalent to 10 years, they would appear half the the year amount. So if Auron (the main OC) is 60 Seasons, she'd be 30 in the Naruto world but appear around 15 or so. (see _Reincarnation and Gods' Favor _for more detailed information)

The Flordinese have longer lives than normal humans (yes, they are Mortal, just favored) and more durable bodies. They could live longer than 3x a regular person, depending on their Health and soul record (see above reference for answers) at birth.

**...Reincarnation and Gods' Favor...**

The Flordinese are a peaceful people, but their origin is anything but. These are the reincarnated souls of all World peacekeepers who want the joy of living but not the strife of war-like conflict.

In the begining, whenever a person who strived for peace died, they would request the High Lord to let them live for the same purpose again. They would be reborn every time, never wanting to rest even a human year in Paradise, until a permanent nation of peace was born.

Many Gods and Goddesses of different religions and races took pity on the striving souls who would do anything to fulfill their self-proclaimed purpose. Joining their power, a dimensional world was created in the back World full of wars and such conflict to balance the inhabitant's destructive nature. So the Flordina Plains were born.

Since the Gods didn't want to wear out the souls or have too many forms at one time, **Flordinese bodies** were made to live longer and stand much more abuse than an original human's.

To be reincarnated in the Flordina Plains, a soul's past lives and what they used that time for are weighed, and depending on how much for-the-better life changing experiences created, the incarnation's reborn status in Flordina is decided.

To have a new body -when an elderly man or woman dies, every couple who wants a child or is visited by a fox messenger (seen _Mentioned Gods: Inari-sama_) has sex two days after the morning is over. An odd but efficient way to reincarnate more souls.

**...Flordinese Appearence...**

In the Flordina Plains, there are three common types of appearance (excluding build): black or dark brown hair, chocolate eyes and pale or tannish skin; blonde (white or yellowish) hair, deep blue eyes (like the sea or flowers) and tanned skin; brown hair (with highlights) and green-blue eyes. Red hair is fairly uncommon (1/100) and so is bronze skin (1/1000). There is only one place to find either: Dorchester District.

The mage hair and eyes varies from pale orange to sea green in colors. Most have distinct facial markings (strips or such, as seen in anime) that distinquish their Clan as well as ansetry. Usually secretive, if devoid of any type of marking and have close-to-natural hair, they will wear special clothing to do as the markings (tats) tell tale.

This applies to House families and servants alike.

**...The House Branches of Main, Wing and Horn...**

_Main House (Talance)  
_This House Branch breeds Leaders and Rulers whose heirs that don't inherit the Suprime (Head) possession rule the peaceful districts with love and compassion. The family is immense, and those who don't fit the leader rule have a variety of choice for purposes in life. The current Suprime is Auron's great-grandfather (Lawgrace Talance), who's strict but fair way of rule is most efficient.

_Wing House (Hawoks)_  
Prophects, sages and all wise councilers originate here. Their training is rigorous, and most become mages more oft than not, but the resulting peoples are worth the effort put into their maturity. They also are able to see possible past, present, and future and to determine which is which through their intense training. They write what they See on scrolls that are given to librarians and filed away in the library.  
There aren't many direct descendants of Wing House's founder, Airstalc Hawoksan and his patron goddess Athne (see _Chapter 1: Mentioned God_) because of so much inter-House breeding.

_Horn House(Soonaru)_  
The breeding ground of strategists, thinkers, and all around artists. This house balances the calm, collected but emotionally-dented Wings and arrogant but compassionate Main Houses. They can be all things (have the talent) but prefer seclusion and freedom most of all.  
The Suprime of Main House Branch, Lawgrace Talance, married the heir, Sundance Soonaru, of Horn House Branch, who later died giving life to her third child, Norlan Talance, who did not survive either. (Both were Barried and Reborn two weeks later.)

**...Mentioned Gods...**

_Inari-sama  
_The god of rice and important messages, patron animal the cunning fox, who used kitsune for messengers.  
Rice is a sacred food only able to be eaten by the Three Houses and their favored servants. (Personally, Auron hates it, having to eat it for almost every meal as she does.)  
Kitsune (foxes) on the other hand are worshiped animals protected by sacred contract and forbidden to be killed, no matter what the rascal has done.

_Jahar(-baka)(-sama)  
_Patron god of mages and magic, said to have sea-colored hair and auburn eyes, a favored god to swear by.  
Auron describes him as '_the stick-in-the-ass, sadistic bastard that bosses poor apprentices about_'. She should know as well, seeing as the jerk hangs around her for no better reason then boredom, or to just make her life more difficult.  
Despite his need to cuss more than Auron in her Sukien anger persona and loveof tormenting people's lives, Jahar's actually an ok guy.  
(If you squint real close, that is)

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**!Chapter One References!**

**...The Teachers and Tutors...**

Auron had to major tutors: Docter and his cousin Feena. Her history teacher, Doctor's brother Noeta, was usually abset because of other duties or volunteering in the library (he avoided her as much as he could). She liked to teased -torcher- every teacher but her main ones, which turned Savannah-baka a few more shades of red.

_Doctor_  
The tutor in charge of metical and psychological training. In order to be a grand Heir, she needed to know how to motivate and manipulate allies and enemies alike. As for metical; the Spells wouldn't last forever.  
She enjoys his company every much, in a friendly kind of way. Maybe it's just because his experiments cause a lot of pain and she's plain sadistic.

_Feena_  
Surprisingly, Auron's second favorite tutor teaches manners, flower aranging and dance, nothing she is good at. But the woman prevides some interesting advise and story telling, both which the girl requires constantly. (though she'll never admit it)  
Feena Soonaru also has a 180 temper, which can be set off by any annoying (preverted)male. A well-mannered lady to a spear (don't ask) weilding Amazon-woman is just Auron's type of friend.

**...Mentioned Gods...**

_Jahar(-baka)(-sama) 2_  
Auron blames every change in her personality on Jahar-baka (a name that infuriorates him) or Sukien, but mostly the former.  
Auron met Jahar at a mountain temple on her first visit away from the Main Compound. At first she thought he was another young boy (he prephers being seen as one most of the time) who liked to tease people and ended up hitting him. Even when she found out he was a God (Athne told him)(See _Chapter Two: Mentioned Gods_) Auron showed no respected saying 'if you're a god, act like one, not some spoiled brat.' They've been at each other's throughts ever since.

_Paiyan-san(-sama)_  
The patient Goddess of House Wives, all their activities and the like. She acts a lot like Sukien's nice side, but has a 180 temper much like Iruka. Paiyan is also the consort of Jahar(-sama)(-baka) and keeps him in line most of the time, which is mostly away from the Mortal realm for anything by Godly buisness. For some reason's she grown stubborn for him...  
She scolds Auron for almost everything she does, but doesn't accually appear to her. She haunts the girl's dreams like a wary spirit and is one of the reasons Auron sleeps so seldomly; the kind goddess wouldn't deprive the girl of overdue rest for petty scoldings when she hardly had any energy at all!

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**!Chapter Two References!**

...Back to Life: Ritual...

For the spell caster to play god and reanimate a person and join their soul to the body, they must give some of their life essence in turn. A ritual object of some kind is required to cut the neck or other vital artery so s/he's essence may poor out. Usually a dager or short sword of some sort, blessed by a powerful figure or handed down through generations of a spiritual family, is used for this reason.

Depending on how much life energy you put into the corpse, the stronger the bond and the longer the person will stay alive. There are speciel ways to add something to the body super-human strength or rapid-healing abilities, for examplebut the cost is much higher and are usually enforced by carved symbles somewhere on the body. Some spell casters in the past have used sacraifces -human and animal- to do this same ritual, but only got a zombie-like result.

**...Mentioned Gods...**

_Shunhi(-kun)(-san)(-sama)  
_Shunhi is a God of Death (shinigami) and son of the Japanese God of Death. He likes his job, finds it peaceful since he only collects souls, and avoids conflict as much as possible. He also loves his consort, Athne (please see below), very much but is still shy around her for some strange reason.  
When ever he comes across a soul he can't find a place for, or need any other advise, he goes to see the lazy Auron who puts up with him as long as he does her favors in turn.

_Athne(-chan(-san)_  
Goddess of Knowledge and Metical patients, who was the founder of Wing Branch (the prophet/sage House) who loves to heal the sick and is once-in-a-while reincarnated in the main Howak's family. Her reincarnation doesn't inheiret, but becomes a doctor and saves the lives of many who would have died otherwise. Her consort Shunhi, and they love eachother very much.  
Auron and Athne are good friends. The goddess used to take care of the girl when everyone else was buisy, and hasn't been reincarnated because she's too busy helping Auron, now.

* * *

**!Chapter Three References!**

**...Flordina Love Consept...**

The Flordinese beleive in love of all kinds, as long as the person is happy and peaceful with no real conflict, mentally or physically. If a match arranged by the parents doesn't work out, the one beingchose for will pick someone else (if they are old enough)or it will be left to the parents yet again.Even though arranged marages are quite common the first or second times, there is a limit to how much the parents can interfere: the child may declime and marry someone else if they wish, or just stay single.

The Flordinese also do not care if two of the same sex are in love and wish to tye the knot. As for experience, it is common for servents to help their masters in the teachings of love, or the masters to teach the servents. It doesn't matter to them and it's fairly common. There are enough same-sex couples to make pleanty of children, though. And no one under the appearence of atlest 18 may perticipate in such things.

**...Immortal Soul's First Life...**  
To the Flordinese, their real First Life is when they are excepted to become reincarnations and finally finding peace within themselves to except such a place. Every soul reincarnated chooses another to become bound to, and if the other agrees, they are from then on what everyone calls '_Soul Mates_'. If one dies in a life time, wheither at birth or by illness, the other is left to continue on the family line (if needed) or to find happiness alone.

**...Mentioned Gods...**

n/a new

* * *

**!Chapter Four References!**

nothing new

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**!Chapter Five References!**

Nothing new, really. If there is anything that needs explaining, just ask in your review and I'll post it here.

* * *

**!Chapter Six References!**

**...Mysterious Yuki...**  
The mysterious Yuki Auron keeps thinking about. Who is he, and why is he in the girl's head? He was once sealed, so most likely only an imprint of him remains, but the real question is, who is this 'Yukinakhera' and what does he want to unleash?  
In later chapters, he plays a big part in Auron's life. The one thing we (you) know for sure is: He currupts people, and makes them do his bidding.

**...Olden Land System...**  
The OLS, as it's commonly known in theFlordina Plains, is a sequence of languages devided into various parts and dialects. Auron uses the Formal and Juna, while demons like Kyuubi and Shukaku (Ichubi) use the growls and yelps of Sunette. The Sutras and such preists use, for example, are an evolved dialect of the OLS's Formal sequence.  
It is unknown where Auron learned to speak this, but she does so fluently and without mishap very often. And if one knows the Juna (a form of word spell casting), one can learn the 'foreign magic' she and her people use.

**...Mage Univercity and Edication...**  
The MU of Flordina is, of course, where mages and the like are trained in magic, social life, as well as manners and the like. Auron, for her breif stay, studied all courses, though did terribly at most (she knew the consept and had the ability, just not the persise control needed to preform it). Summoning spells, to her, were the easiest, as all it entailed was pouring energy (both from around and within one's self) into a cleverly crafted magic circle and visualizing whom or what you wanted to summon.

**...Summoning a God: Visualize and Offerings...**  
Auron, for her part, is quite good at said skill. She doesn't even need a magic circle to focuss, just does it anyway for the artist practise, showing off, and sheer laziness to put forth more than the minimal effort.  
To summon a God or Goddess, you usually need offerings and a contract upon prior meeting to get the to do anything. Anyone can summon a celectial figure if you have the powers (and a stick, maybe some jewels or a virgin or two), but most Gods get fed up with pathetic cries for help when the summoner could easily do it themselves.  
Auron is a special case. She needs no Offering, and her contract includes all Gods and Goddesses who pertisapated in the creation of the Flordina Plains. Her incarnations have something to do with it, but not all, and you'll have to wait for later chapters to find out anything more.

* * *

**!Chapter Seven References!**

N/A that I know of. If you are confused about something, just ask in an email or reveiw and I'll put it in the right chapter's Glossary.

* * *

Chapter Eight won't be coming before New Years, as I had expected. Gomen nasai, everyone! Anyway, I'm looking forward to writingChapter Nine. I don't want to spoil it, but it will be mostly about what's happening in Flordina.

Later, all!  
_Li_


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